Martha and Ten, the inbetweens and back stories
by SciFiFanForever
Summary: The Tenth Doctor pines for his lost love, as he looks for someone to keep him under control.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Donna Noble was getting into her car, to start her first day as a temporary secretary at her new job in the city. She was good at her job, being able to type one hundred words a minute, and she was clever. She may not have had much of an education, but when she worked at Hounslow Library for six months, she learned the Dewey Decimal System in two days.

Just last month, she had finished a two year contract with a double glazing firm, and had taken a couple of weeks off to 'chill out' and relax with her mates by scuba diving in Spain. And then, out of the blue, the agency phoned her to see if she was available for a long term contract at a security firm in the City. 'Not arf', was her immediate reply, and was ready to bite their hand off for a chance to work in the City, that's where you got noticed and hopefully where your career took off.

"Jival Chowdry, he runs that little photocopy business in Merchant Street, and he needs a secretary," Sylvia Noble told her daughter as she fastened her seatbelt. She didn't agree with her daughter having all these temporary jobs and no future prospects.

"I've - got - a - job," Donna told her in an annoyed tone. "HC Clements is in the City. It's nice; it's posh, so stop it." She started the car and drove down the road. When they got to the 'T' junction at the main road, she indicated left.

Her mother was like a dog with a bone, and wouldn't leave it, "It won't take long, just turn right."

"I'm going left, if you don't like it, get out and walk…. You think I'm so useless," Donna said, anything she did was never good enough for her.

"Oh, I know why you want a job with HC Clements, lady, because you think you'll meet a man," Sylvia said with venom. "City executives don't need temps, except for practice."

This struck a chord with Donna, on a number of occasions, she'd terminated her contract early because some executive had wandering hands. "Yeah, suppose you're right." She indicated right, and they heard a woman screaming down the road.

"Can you hear that?" Sylvia asked her, as cars heading down the road to the right started to pull up.

"The traffic's stopping," Donna said.

"Something must have happened."

"Well, that decides it. I'm not sitting in a traffic jam. I'm going left." She indicated left again and drove off towards the City, and her new appointment at HC Clements.

She dropped her mum off by the shops, and went on to find a parking place as near to the offices as she could. She had a five minute walk, and walked into the bright, airy reception of her new job.

"Donna Noble, new secretary, one hundred words a minute," she said to the pleasant girl on the reception desk.

The receptionist looked down a list on a clipboard. "Oh yes, Miss Noble." She made her single status sound like an accusation of unpopularity, a curse that doomed her to spinsterhood for the rest of her life. "You need to check in with Human Resources, which is just down the corridor there."

"Thank you," Donna said, pasting a smile on her face and heading in the indicated direction. The door to HR was open, and a number of people sat at desk, answering phones and working on computers.

"Can I help you?" A dark skinned man asked her as he stood from behind his desk.

"Er, I hope so," she said with a flirtatious look. "Donna Noble, the new, one hundred words a minute secretary," she said holding out her hand.

"Oh yes, hello," he said with a smile. "Is that typing or talking?" He asked her with a cheeky grin.

"Eh?"

"The hundred words a minute."

"Hah! Nice one…, I'm goin' to have to watch you, aren't I Sunshine?"

"I'm Lance Bennett, head of HR," he said as he shook her hand. "Have a seat, and I'll make us a cup of coffee."

**Saint Mary's Church, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London.**

**Six months later.**

Geoff Noble linked his arm through his daughters instead of the other way around, so Donna changed it in a bit of a huff. She was nervous, and she wanted this to go right.

"Sorry," Geoff said, and Donna smiled, he was nervous as well.

The organist struck up Mendelssohn's Wedding March, and Geoff led his daughter down the aisle. Friends and family members looking back and smiling as an obviously happy bride walked past them. There were a few members of the congregation, work colleagues from HC Clements, who weren't that impressed, thinking that Donna only took the job to try and snare a man (as if she would ever do that).

After all, it was Lance that had come on to her, making her a coffee, her, a temporary secretary. Nobody makes a secretary a coffee, not unless they fancy them. And him being the head of HR! He didn't need to bother with her, but he was nice..., he was funny. And so, here she was after six months of courting, he'd finally seen sense and realised that she was the woman for him.

Well, to be fair, Donna told him she was the woman for him, and asked him to marry her. 'Go on, just think about it, we'd make a great couple, and I'd get rid of the dog, and we could do up that back bedroom', she had told him. Lance didn't seem that keen at first, but she talked him around. 'Please? Oh, please? Please? Please, please, please, please, please', and he said yes.

She saw him nervously look at her over his shoulder and smile, not long now. She was halfway down the nave, when she felt butterflies in her stomach. 'Wedding day nerves' she thought, but what was that golden light, had the church got some special spotlights for filming the video? Everything was going fuzzy and echoey, she started screaming.

**TARDIS Console Room.**

"You're dead..., officially, back home. So many people died that day and you've gone missing. You're on a list of the dead." Tears started to well in both their eyes. Rose lost it first and tears started to roll down her cheeks.

He smiled at her, willing the tears to stop. "Here you are, living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have."

She had picked up on the finality of that sentence. "Am I ever going to see you again?" she asked him, openly crying now.

"You can't," he stated simply.

"What're you going to do?" she wailed.

His mouth was smiling but his eyes were now crying along with Rose. "Oh, I've got the TARDIS. Same old life, last of the Time Lords."

"On your own," she asked. She couldn't bear the thought of him being on his own. Who would look out for him, keep him in check?

He silently nodded at her. He couldn't speak.

"I…." The words caught in her throat. "I love you," she cried, covering her eyes to try to hide her tears.

He wanted to see her smile one last time. "Quite right, too," he said, and those beautiful lips formed that gorgeous smile that he missed so much.

The TARDIS on the other hand gave him a mental version of a kick on the shin. She was urging him to say it. Even if she knew it, Rose needed to hear it, and it was the least she deserved.

In an instant he knew that the TARDIS was right. He looked into Rose's eyes. "And I suppose, if it's one last chance to say it," he started, summoning all his courage and love for this extraordinary human standing before him. "Rose Tyler, I love you."

The image of Rose had faded but he carried on. "I think I loved you from the moment I first held your hand and our time lines became fixed. And I definitely loved you when you risked yourself to save me on Satellite 5."

He blinked away the tears and sniffed, walking around the console and setting the controls as he went. Where would he go? He didn't want to go anywhere without Rose. He'd had other companions that he'd travelled with and had adventures with, but Rose was different, she'd shown him how to have fun again, shown him how to love again, and now she'd shown him the pain of loss again.

He looked up from the console to see a red headed woman dressed like a ghost, complete with a veil.

"What?" Was his grief causing him to hallucinate?

"Who are you?" His hallucination asked. It wasn't a very good hallucination if it didn't know where it was.

"But...," 'if you're real, you can't possibly be here', he was going to say, but was interrupted.

"Where am I?" The ghost that couldn't possibly be there asked.

"What?" He was struggling to keep up, he'd just said a final goodbye to his soul mate, and now this, was he going mad?

"What the hell is this place?" Ooh, the hallucination was getting a bit tetchy now.

"What...? You can't do that…. I wasn't... We're in flight. That is..., that is physically impossible! How did…."

"Tell me where I am. I demand you tell me right now where am I?" The ghost said forcefully.

"Inside the TARDIS," he told her honestly.

"The what?"

Was she deaf? "The TARDIS."

"The what?"

Was she daft? "The TARDIS!"

"The what?"

Oh, she was female. "It's called the TARDIS."

"That's not even a proper word. You're just saying things," she said angrily.

"How did you get in here?" He asked her, she appeared to be real, and not a ghost as he'd first thought. His grief was messing with his head.

"Well, obviously, when you kidnapped me. Who was it? Who's paying you? Is it Nerys? Oh my God, she's finally got me back, this has got Nerys written all over it."

"Who the hell is Nerys?"

"Your best friend," the ghost said cryptically.

So, this wasn't a ghost, it was a human. "Hold on, wait a minute…, what are you dressed like that for?"

"I'm going ten pin bowling. Why do you think, dumbo? I was halfway up the aisle! I've been waiting all my life for this." The Doctor ran back to the console and adjusted some more of the settings. "I was just seconds away, and then you, I don't know, you drugged me or something!" She said accusingly

"I haven't done anything!" He declared, as he carried on adjusting the console controls.

"I'm having the police on you! Me and my husband, as soon as he is my husband, we're going to sue the living backside off you!" She ran down the ramp to go outside to find a telephone to call the police.

He looked up from the console and saw her running for the doors. "No, wait a minute, wait a minute, don't!" He called to her, but she wasn't listening. She opened the door and stopped in stunned silence, looking out over the nebulous remnant of a supernova, the energy from which he had just used to contact Rose.

He wandered down the ramp, hands in pockets, and stood beside her "You're in space…, outer space... This is my space…, ship. It's called the TARDIS."

"How am I breathing?" she asked quietly, obviously in shock.

"The TARDIS is protecting us."

She tried to gather her thoughts. "Who are you?" Seemed like a good place to start.

"I'm the Doctor…. You?"

Who was she…? Hang on she knew the answer to that one. "Donna."

He looked her up and down. "Human?"

"Yeah." Hang on; what kind of question was that? "Is that optional?"

"Well, it is for me," he said quietly.

She let that last comment sink in. "You're an alien."

"Yeah."

"It's freezing with these doors open," she said, trying to bring some normality back to her life.

The Doctor closed the doors quickly and ran up the ramp towards the console. "I don't understand that and I understand everything. This, this can't happen! There is no way a human being can lock itself onto the TARDIS and transport itself inside. It must be…."

He picked up an ophthalmoscope and used it to look into Donna's eyes. "….Impossible. Some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field? Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the Chronon shell. Maybe something macro mining your DNA within the interior matrix. Maybe a genetic…."

SLAP!

"What was that for?" Why was it that since he'd met Rose, women just wanted to slap him?

"Get - me - to - the - church!" She demanded.

Well sod this for a game of tiddlywinks. "Right! Fine! I don't want you here anyway! Where is this wedding?"

"Saint Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, the Solar System," she said sarcastically, and then noticed a purple ladies hoodie, left hanging over the handrail. She rushed over and grabbed it as evidence of the Doctor being a kidnapper.

"I knew it, acting all innocent. I'm not the first, am I? How many women have you abducted?" she asked as she held the hoodie up for him to see.

The Doctor looked at it, a sad expression on his face. Only a few hours ago, she'd been in here, wearing that very top. "That's my friend's," he said sadly.

"Where is she, then? Popped out for a space walk?" she said sarcastically, unaware of the unbearable sadness in his heart.

"She's gone."

"Gone where?" she shouted.

He looked away, trying to stem the tears that were welling in his eyes. "I lost her."

"Well, you can hurry up and lose me!" She shouted, but he didn't react, didn't respond at all. It was then that she noticed his sadness, how had she missed it? It was like a howl of anguish emanating from his very soul. "How do you mean, lost?"

He took Rose's top from her, as though it was sacrilege that anyone but him should hold that which belonged to his love.

"Right, Chiswick," he called out, and ran to the console.

* * *

"There we go. Told you she'd be all right. She can survive anything," the Doctor said as they stepped out of the TARDIS, across the road from her house.

"More than I've done," she replied.

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned her from head to toe. "No, all the Huon particles have gone. No damage, you're fine."

"Yeah, but apart from that..., I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow on the same day…, sort of."

"I couldn't save him," the Doctor said in self accusation.

"He deserved it," she said, nodding as if to confirm what she was saying. The Doctor looked at her as though he didn't believe her.

"No, he didn't," she admitted sadly. "I'd better get inside. They'll be worried."

"Best Christmas present they could have," he said looking through the front room window as her parents hugged. "Oh, no, I forgot you hate Christmas."

"Yes, I do," she declared.

He reached inside the door of the TARDIS. "Even…, if it snows?"

He pulled a lever and the TARDIS lamp turned yellow, firing a bolt of energy into the sky, which caused an instant snow shower.

Donna started to laugh in disbelief. "I can't believe you did that!"

"Oh, basic atmospheric excitation." They stood there, looking at each other.

"Merry Christmas," she said.

"And you." He looked up at the falling snow. "So..., what will you do with yourself now?

"Not getting married, for starters... And I'm not going to temp anymore... I don't know…, travel…, see a bit more of planet Earth…, walk in the dust…, just go out there, and do something."

"Well, you could always…." He left the sentence hanging in the air between them.

"What?"

"Come with me," he said quietly.

"No," she whispered, shaking her head.

"Okay," he said a bit too quickly.

"I can't," she sighed.

"No, that's fine." Again, he was a bit too quick with the reply.

"No, but really, everything we did today…, do you live your life like that?"

He remembered all the good times with Rose. "Not all the time."

"I think you do…, and I couldn't."

"But you've seen it out there…, it's beautiful."

"And it's terrible. That place was flooding and burning and they were dying, and you were stood there like, I don't know..., a stranger..., and then you made it snow, I mean, you scare me to death."

What had he become, now that Rose wasn't here to hold his hand, was he that scary? "Right," he said, resigned to a life without a friend, a life without Rose.

"Tell you what I will do, though, Christmas dinner…. Oh, come on."

"I don't do that sort of thing." Not anymore, not without Rose, it wouldn't be the same.

"You did it last year, you said so." Damn, he'd been busted. "And you might as well, because Mum always cooks enough for twenty."

He hesitated, how was he going to get out of this one? "Oh..., all right then…, but you go first…, better warn them. And don't say I'm a Martian. I just have to…, park her properly…, she might drift off to the Middle Ages. I'll see you in a minute."

Donna started to cross the road, and the Doctor snuck into the TARDIS and started the time rotor.

Donna turned at the sound, realising that he was trying to sneak away. "DOCTOR! DOC-TOR!"

The TARDIS fell silent, and a moment later the door opened. "Blimey, you can shout."

She smiled at him. "Am I ever going to see you again?"

"If I'm lucky."

"Just…, promise me one thing... Find someone."

"I don't need anyone," he said arrogantly.

"Yes, you do. Because sometimes, I think you need someone to stop you."

"Yeah." She was right, and that someone was lost in another universe. "Thanks then, Donna. Good luck. And just…, be magnificent."

"I think I will..., yeah." The Doctor went back into the TARDIS and closed the door. "Doctor?" she called.

"Oh, what is it now?" Feigning annoyance, but smiling at her.

"That friend of yours…, what was her name?" She realised that his missing friend was probably the one who used to stop him.

"Her name was Rose." He went back inside, the noise started, the TARDIS started to fade, and then it shot up into the air and disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

'Der-der-der-der'

07:00, and a hand appeared from under the purple duvet and fumbled across the top of the bedside cabinet, silenced the alarm clock, and retreated back into the warm cocoon of the slumbering medical student. 'Urgh', it couldn't possibly be morning already, she'd only just put her text books down and gone to bed, finally able to recite all the digestive enzymes in the small intestine.

She reluctantly dragged herself out of the warm, welcoming bed and made her way to the tiny bathroom of her tiny flat. She turned on the tap for the shower, leaving the cold water to spray into the bathtub while she had a pee. By the time she'd finished emptying her bladder, the water coming out of the shower head was nice and hot.

She sat at the dressing table in her bedroom, wrapped in a pink bathrobe and a pink towel around her head in a turban, eating her muesli and doing her make up, trying to get ready in time to get to work. It was weird, but no matter how hard she tried, or how much she planned, she never seemed to have enough time. She would definitely make time tonight though, it was her little brother's twenty first birthday party, and there was no way she was going to be late for that.

She dressed in black trousers, and turquoise blouse, and put her hair back with a couple of hair grips. She was about to put her coat on, when she remembered the washing in the machine.

"Arrrgh…, damn!" She quickly ran into the tiny kitchen and pulled the items out of the washing machine and quickly draped them over the clothes horse, before rushing out of the door to catch the bus for the short journey to the Royal Hope Hospital.

As she walked along Chancellor Street from the bus stop towards the hospital, her phone rang, and she saw that it was her elder sister Tish.

"You're up early. What's happening?"

"It's a nightmare, because Dad won't listen, and I'm telling you, Mum is going mental. Swear to God, Martha, this is epic. You've got to get in there and stop him," Tish said.

"How do I do that?" she asked, knowing that she was talking about her dad bringing his girlfriend to Leo's party.

"Tell him he can't bring her."

She was about to answer when her call waiting tone beeped. "Hold on, that's Leo. I'll call you back." Why was it that everyone called her if there was a problem? I mean, Tish was the eldest.

"Martha, if Mum and Dad start to kick off, tell them I don't even want a party. I didn't even ask for one. They can always give me the money instead," Leo told her.

"Yeah, but why do I have to tell them? Why can't you?" Her call waiting tone beeped again. "Hold on, that's Mum. I'll call you back." Maybe it's because they thought she was the smartest of the siblings. She didn't think she was, even if she had gotten into medical school.

"I don't mind your father making a fool of himself in private, but this is Leo's twenty first, everyone is going to be there, and the entire family is going to look ridiculous," Francine, her mother said.

"Mum, it's a party; I can't stop Dad from bringing his girlfriend." Her call waiting tone beeped yet again. "Hold on, that's Dad, I'll call you back." For God's sake, what did they think she was, the family agony aunt?

"Martha? Now, tell your mother, Leo is my son, and I'm paying for half that party. I'm entitled to bring who I like," her father, Clive said forcefully. Why he couldn't tell her himself, she'd never know. Oh, actually, she did…, they weren't talking to each other.

"I know, but think what it's going to look like for Mum, if you're standing there with Annalise," she said, trying to play the devil's advocate.

"What's wrong with Annalise?" he asked her defensively.

Actually, there was nothing wrong with Annalise, Martha quite liked her. She was a bit too young for her dad she thought, but she was a nice enough person, and she wasn't an emotional bully like her mum was.

She could hear her in the background. "Is that Martha? Say hi..., hi Martha, hi!"

"Hi, Annalise," Martha called out.

"Big kiss, lots of love, see you at the party, babe. Now, take me shopping, big boy."

Martha looked at her phone in amusement and turned it off, time to end that conversation. A tall, thin man with sticky up hair, wearing a brown pin striped suit and long brown coat stepped out in front of her.

"Like so," he said, looking at her as though he knew her, and was making some kind of point as he removed his tie. "See?"

The man left as suddenly as he had arrived, and Martha gave him a puzzled look. Obviously he must have been heading for the Mental Health Outpatients Department.

* * *

The Doctor was sitting in his favourite comfy chair in the library, reading the latest edition of Galactic News on his E-reader. He looked for stories which he had been involved in, in any of his incarnations. Rose used to love it when he found himself, and he had to explain which one of him it was, and who he was with. They passed many an evening like that….

He missed her. He missed her teasing smile, when she used to try and wind him up. He missed her laugh, he missed her look of admiration when he was being particularly clever, he missed the smell of her perfume, he missed the feel of her hand in his…, he just missed her.

He wondered what was she doing now? Was she missing him? Of course she was, they were in love, but he hoped that she was moving on and making a life for herself in that new world. After all, she'd got her mum, she'd got a new dad, and he hoped that was working out alright after the dodgy start.

Pete Tyler was in denial that Rose could be his daughter, but she had said there were five of them now, when he had said goodbye to her on that beach, so it sounded as though they were a family. And of course there was Mickey…, would they get back together again after she had gotten over him. That thought hurt him, but he also hoped that she didn't deny herself the chance of happiness with someone else.

'Enough of this maudlin', he thought to himself, he would never know how she was getting on, or how her life would turn out. She was Rose Tyler, and she would be fine, she'd proved that when she'd travelled with him. He stood up and headed for the console room to see what was occurring in the universe.

He activated the view screen and performed a quick scan for any unusual phenomena, when he noticed some plasma coils accumulating energy. Now that wasn't unusual in itself, except that it was on twenty first century Earth, and they didn't have that kind of technology, and it was around a hospital near the Thames.

Now this was the kind of thing that would distract him for a while, and help him to stop pining for Rose. It looked like something was interfering with the hospital, the questions were, who, and why? If he could get himself admitted to the hospital, he could work the investigation from the inside.

**Royal ****Hope ****Hospital****.**

**Chancellor Street, ****London****.**

The Doctor lowered Martha onto an upholstered bench seat in the reception area of the hospital; she was starting to come around. Everyone was suffering from the effects of mild hypoxia, but there would be no permanent damage, once again his respiratory bypass had come in useful.

He made his way to the main doors and noticed there was a police cordon, paramedics, reporters, and sightseers. He certainly didn't fancy hanging around and having to try and explain this to the authorities. He went to his right, and tried to find another way out, heading for the stores. He went past racks of supplies and boxes, until he found the loading bay, and managed to 'fade' into the street and back onto the Albert Embankment.

As he walked towards the TARDIS, he risked one look back at the hospital, and saw Martha looking at him. He smiled at her and touched a finger to his forehead in a salute to her, before turning away and entering the TARDIS.

'Well, that could have gone better', he thought to himself, as he put the TARDIS into the Vortex. As usual, things went down to the wire, he'd have to try and break that habit of leaving things until the last second. But on the whole, all things considered, it got him out of the TARDIS, and gave him something to do.

He watched the time rotor pump up and down as he usually did when he was thinking.

'Just promise me one thing…, find someone', he saw Donna telling him.

'You just leave us behind. Is that what you're going to do to me?' Rose had asked him. He moved away from the rotor and sat on the jump seat.

'Because sometimes, I think you need someone to stop you' Donna had said.

'NO! I won't let you do this' Rose had said as she stood in front of his mortal enemy, a Dalek. 'It couldn't kill me, it's changing. What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?'

And then Donna had said it. 'That place was flooding and burning and they were dying, and you were stood there like, I don't know..., a stranger..., and then you made it snow, I mean, you scare me to death.'

"I'm sorry Rose, I'm turning back into the man you first met…, I think Donna was right, I need someone to tell me when enough is enough." He remembered when she was crying on that beach, when he told her that it was the same old life, travelling in the TARDIS.

'On your own?' She had asked him, horrified by the idea of him being on his own..., even if it wasn't her by his side.

He stood up and walked back to the console, he'd come to a decision, he needed someone to be his moral compass, just as she had been. Donna wasn't interested, Martha Jones however, had shown a remarkable ability to deal with the impossible and bizarre, and was good in a crisis.

She'd said it was her Brother Leo's twenty first birthday party tonight; he did a quick check on the view screen and found out where the party was being held.

"Hah! The Market Tavern, right then Martha Jones, let's offer you one trip, and see if you've got the right stuff."

He landed the TARDIS in an alley across the street from the Market Tavern, and went to stand at the corner, where he could watch the coming and going of the Jones family and their guests. He saw a leggy blonde storm out of the Tavern, followed by members of the Jones family. It was all a bit domestic.

The argument moved off, down the street, and Martha stood there, watching them go. She'd had enough of trying to be the sensible one, the peacemaker, the devil's advocate. Sod it; let them get on with it. She glanced across the street, and did a double take, was that the Doctor standing there, watching her? He turned and wandered off down the alley.

She hurried across the road and looked down the alley, he'd gone. She walked down the alley and turned the corner at the end, ah, there he was, leaning back against the blue box that she thought she'd seen outside the hospital.

"I went to the moon today," she said with a smile.

"A bit more peaceful than down here," he noted.

"You never even told me who you are," she said as she walked towards him.

"The Doctor."

"What sort of species? It's not every day I get to ask that."

"I'm a Time Lord."

"Riiiight! Not pompous at all, then," she said sarcastically.

Ooh, she wasn't fazed or intimidated by him being a superior alien being then, that was a good start. There was a slight smirk on his face as he reached inside his jacket. "I just thought…, since you saved my life and I've got a brand new sonic screwdriver which needs road testing..., you might fancy a trip."

"What, into space?"

"Well…."

"But I can't. I've got exams. I've got things to do. I have to go into town first thing and pay the rent; I've got my family going mad."

Ah, she'd got a life, just like Rose had when he first met her, and he now knew what to do about that. "If it helps..., I can travel in time as well."

"Get out of here."

"I can."

"Come on now, that's going too far."

"I'll prove it."

He turned around and entered the TARDIS and after a few moments, it started to dematerialise, accompanied by the most wonderful sound she had ever heard. She walked forwards and held her hand out, trying to see if it had just become invisible, or if it had really disappeared. She stepped back suddenly as she heard the sound again, and felt the breeze from the air being twisted out of shape.

The TARDIS rematerialised where it had been standing, and the Doctor stepped out, holding his tie up for her to see. "Told you."

"No, but..., that was this morning... Did you...? Oh, my God. You can travel in time. But hold on…, if you could see me this morning, why didn't you tell me not to go in to work?" she asked him accusingly. She nearly died today, and he could have prevented that…, couldn't he?

"Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden," he told her, and then realised that he had done just that to impress her. "Except for cheap tricks," he added as a proviso.

"And that's your spaceship?" she said with a smile.

"It's called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space," he explained, as she reached forwards and stroked the TARDIS.

"Your spaceship's made of wood," she observed, not much of a spaceship if it's just made of wood. "There's not much room..., we'd be a bit intimate."

He pushed the door open. "Take a look."

She stepped inside, and he followed her to see her reaction. She gazed up at the vaulted ceiling, the large, vaulted ceiling. "No..., no, no." She turned and ran outside.

"But it's just a box... But it's huge," she shouted to him inside.

She popped her head through the door. "How does it do that? It's wood." She stepped back inside. "It's like a box with that room just rammed in." Then she said it, they all did. "It's bigger on the inside." The Doctor mouthed the words as she said them.

"Is it? I hadn't noticed." That was it, she was in and she'd passed the test. He took off his long coat and threw it over a coral strut. "Right then, let's get going."

She followed him up the ramp, looking around the console room. "But…, is there a…, crew, like a navigator and stuff? Where is everyone?"

"Just me," he said with a slight hint of sadness in his voice.

"All on your own?"

"Well, sometimes I have guests…. I mean some friends, travelling alongside. I had…." He thought about his lost love. "There was recently..., a friend of mine." His voice went quiet, thoughtful. "Rose, her name was. Rose." He didn't want to talk about his relationship with Rose, so he decided on a non committal explanation. "And we were together, anyway."

'Were together? So that was it, he's just been dumped by his girlfriend' she thought to herself. "Where is she now?" Martha asked.

"With her family, happy…. She's fine. She's…, not that you're replacing her," he told her firmly, pointing a finger at her.

"Never said I was," she smiled. So this Rose had left him and gone back to her family.

"Just one trip to say thanks. You get one trip, then back home," he said rather angrily. "I'd rather be on my own." He thought about Rose again.

He was still in love with her; that was obvious. Maybe she could distract him; after all, he was quite attractive, in a geeky kind of way. And he was a damn good kisser. She sidled up to him. "You're the one that kissed me," she teased.

"That was a genetic transfer," he said, a bit too 'matter of fact'.

She continued to tease him. "And if you will wear a tight suit."

"Now..., don't!"

"And then travel all the way across the universe just to ask me on a date."

"Stop it," he said firmly, staring at her. He was still mourning the loss of Rose, and was in no mood to have emotions messed with.

"For the record? I'm not remotely interested. I only go for humans," she lied.

"Good," he said, relieved that she had gotten the message. "Well, then. Close down the gravitic anomaliser, fire up the helmic regulator. And finally, the hand brake. Ready?"

"No."

"Off we go," he said as the TARDIS dematerialised with a big jolt, and they hung on for dear life.

"Blimey, it's a bit bumpy."

"Welcome aboard, Miss Jones," he shouted, holding his hand out across the console.

"It's my pleasure, Mister Smith," she replied, shaking his hand.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The TARDIS was still bucking, and Martha was hanging on to the console. "But how do you travel in time? What makes it go?"

The Doctor was winding a handle, trying to stabilise the TARDIS. "Oh, let's take the fun and mystery out of everything. Martha, you don't want to know. It just does. Hold on tight."

The TARDIS came to a halt, and Martha was thrown to the floor.

"Blimey. Do you have to pass a test to fly this thing?"

"Yes, and I failed it. Now, make the most of it." He grabbed his long, brown coat and headed for the doors. "I promised you one trip and one trip only. Outside this door, brave new world," he said, standing with his back to the door.

"Where are we?" she asked, standing at the top of the ramp.

"Take a look. After you."

Martha stepped through the door onto a narrow street, where a woman was washing in a water trough, and hanging the washing on lines below the overhanging eaves, scruffy urchins ran past her.

"Oh, you are kidding me; you are so…, kidding me. Oh, my God, we did it. We travelled in time." She looked around, trying to take it all in. "Where are we? No..., sorry, I got to get used to this whole new language…. When are we?"

Before he could answer, he looked up and jumped backwards, dragging her out of the way of a slop bucket being emptied. "Mind out."

"Gardez l'eau!"

"Somewhere before the invention of the toilet. Sorry about that."

"I've seen worse. I've worked the late night shift A+E." The Doctor started to walk down the street. "But are we safe?" she called out to him, "I mean, can we move around and stuff?"

"Of course we can. Why do you ask?"

"It's like in the films. You step on a butterfly; you change the future of the human race."

"Tell you what then, don't step on any butterflies," he said, and then thought about what she'd said. "What have butterflies ever done to you?"

"What if..., I don't know, what if I kill my grandfather?"

"Are you planning to?"

"No."

"Well, then."

"And this is London?"

"I think so. Round about…, fifteen…, ninety nine."

"Oh, but hold on…, am I alright? I'm not going to get carted off as a slave, am I?"

"Why would they do that?"

"Not exactly white, in case you haven't noticed."

"I'm not even human. Just walk about like you own the place. Works for me. Besides, you'd be surprised. Elizabethan England, not so different from your time. Look over there. They've got recycling," he said as he pointed to a man shovelling some animal dung into a wooden pail.

They continued down the street, and two men were leaning on an upturned barrel, chatting and drinking. "Water cooler moment."

"And the world will be consumed by flame," a prophet of doom was preaching as they walked past.

"Global warming. Oh, yes, and entertainment. Popular entertainment for the masses. If I'm right, we're just down the river by Southwark, right next to…." They run along from the south end of old London Bridge, past St Mary Ovarie, Southwark Cathedral, and stop when they see the magnificent edifice.

"Oh, yes," he shouted. "The Globe Theatre! Brand new, just opened…. Though, strictly speaking, it's not a globe, it's a tetradecagon. Fourteen sides. Containing…, the man himself."

"Whoa, you don't mean…. Is Shakespeare in there?"

"Oh, yes. Miss Jones, will you accompany me to the theatre?" He held out his arm for her to take.

She holds on with both hands. "Mister Smith, I will."

"When you get home, you can tell everyone you've seen Shakespeare."

"Then I could get sectioned."

* * *

Martha and an amorous Will Shakespeare were sitting on an empty stage, chatting, while the Doctor went searching for any copies of 'Love's Labour's Won'.

"And I say, a heart for a hart and a dear for a deer," he said, trying to impress her with a play on words.

"I don't get it."

"Then give me a joke from Freedonia."

"Okay, Shakespeare walks into a pub and the landlord says, Oi mate, you're Bard."

Will laughed politely. "That's brilliant. Doesn't make sense, mind you, but never mind that. Now come here." He put his arm around her waist and pulled her towards him.

"I've only just met you."

"The Doctor may never kiss you. Why not entertain a man who will?" he said, and hesitantly moved to kiss her.

She didn't resist, after all, there weren't many women she knew who could claim to have kissed Shakespeare. When he got close though, she realised that oral hygiene in 16th century was not up to the standards of the 21st century.

"I don't know how to tell you this, oh great genius..., but your breath doesn't half stink."

"Good props store back there," the Doctor said as he wandered on to the stage, wearing a ruff, and carrying an animal skull. "I'm not sure about this though…, reminds me of a Sycorax."

"Sycorax, nice word. I'll have that off you as well," Will said.

"I should be on ten percent. How's your head?"

"Still aching."

The Doctor took off the ruff. "Here, I got you this." He fitted it around Will's neck. "Neck brace, wear that for a few days till it's better..., although you might want to keep it, it suits you."

"What about the play?" Martha asked him.

"Gone, I looked all over; every single copy of Love's Labours Won went up in the sky."

"My lost masterpiece," Will said sadly.

"You could write it up again," she suggested.

"Yeah, better not, Will…, there's still power in those words. Maybe it should best stay forgotten," the Doctor suggested.

"Oh, but I've got new ideas. Perhaps it's time I wrote about fathers and sons, in memory of my boy, my precious Hamnet."

"Hamnet?" Martha asked.

"That's him."

"Ham-Net?" she queried.

"What's wrong with that?" Will asked, looking her in the eye.

"Anyway, time we were off. I've got a nice attic in the Tardis where this lot can scream for all eternity," he said as he picked up the blue, crystal ball. "And I've got to take Martha back to Freedonia."

"You mean travel on through time and space," Will said, giving the Doctor a knowing look.

The Doctor's voice had a cautious edge to it. "You what?"

"You're from another world like the Carrionites, and Martha is from the future…, it's not hard to work out."

"That's…, incredible, you are incredible," the Doctor said, full of admiration.

"We're alike in many ways, Doctor." He turned to Martha and held her hand up. "Martha, let me say goodbye to you in a new verse, a sonnet for my Dark Lady…. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate…." He was about to kiss her hand, when Burbage and Kempe came running in to the theatre.

"Will!" Burbage shouted excitedly.

"Will, you'll never believe it, she's here! She's turned up!" Kempe shouted.

"We're the talk of the town..., she heard about last night, she wants us to perform it again," Burbage said with pride.

"Who?" Martha asked.

"Her Majesty," Burbage said. "She's here."

"Queen Elizabeth the First!" the Doctor said enthusiastically.

"Doctor?" the queen said as she strode into the theatre.

"What?" he said, a little less enthusiastic this time.

"My sworn enemy," she declared.

"What?" he said, with no hint of his initial enthusiasm.

"Off, with his head!"

"What?" he said, enthusiasm having been replaced with disbelief.

Martha could see that things were about to 'kick off'. "Never mind what, just run! See you, Will, and thanks."

They ran through the back of the stage to find a way out.

"Stop that pernicious Doctor," the queen commanded.

Will laughed as they ran past him, followed by a couple of the queen's guards. As they ran down the street, they could hear them shouting. "Stop in the name of the Queen!"

"What have you done to upset her?" Martha asked.

"How should I know? Haven't even met her yet," he said as he put the key in the lock and opened the door. "That's time travel for you, still..., can't wait to find out," he said as Martha ran past him, into the TARDIS.

He looked down the street to see an archer taking aim. "That's something to look forward to…. Ooo!" He quickly ducked inside and shut the door, as an arrow thudded into it.

The Doctor ran up to the console, and started the time rotor, putting them into the Vortex.

"Happen to you a lot does it?" Martha asked with a smile, as she watched him orbit the console.

He looked up at her. "What?"

"People you've never met wanting to kill you."

He snorted a laugh. "Not as often as you'd imagine…, but at some point in my future, I must meet her and do something to upset her."

If he only knew that in 1562, he would marry the young Elizabeth, and then travel on through time and space, never to see her again. Queen Elizabeth the First on the other hand, would see him again, today in fact, and she was very annoyed with him. Only a few days ago, the only woman he would have considered marrying was Rose Tyler, and now, that was never going to happen.

Martha understood how Elizabeth felt. Last night they had stayed at a boarding house, where Will Shakespeare was also staying. The Doctor had invited her into his bed, and she was ready to participate in some romantic activity, only to have him tell her how marvellous his 'ex' was, and how she would have solved the mystery of the Carrionites.

The Doctor of course, was completely unaware of any feelings that Martha may have had for him. He only had eyes for one woman, and she was in another universe, and for him, out of sight did not mean out of mind.

"Fancy a cup of tea?" he asked her, once he'd stabilised the TARDIS in flight.

Martha looked around the console room. "Yeah, but where's the kettle?"

The Doctor smiled at her. "In the kitchen, of course. Come on, I'll show you," he said, and led her through the console room to the corridor that led to the rest of the TARDIS.

She looked down the corridor, open mouthed. "I only thought there was that one room, how big is the TARDIS?"

"Y'know, when it comes to transdimensional engineering, that is a very difficult question to answer."

"Hmm, okay…, and what are all these rooms?" she asked, putting her hand on a door handle to her left.

"Not that one," he said sharply. "Sorry…, the kitchen's this way." He guided her down the corridor to the kitchen on the right, glancing back longingly at the door to Rose's room, before following Martha into the kitchen.

"Tea or coffee?" he asked as he switched on the kettle and selected the mug with the glass Pyramid of San Kaloon on it, the one that Rose had bought for him when he was in his previous body.

"Tea, please," she replied.

His fingers brushed past the 2012 Olympics mug that he'd bought for Rose only a couple of weeks ago, and settled on a plain, white mug. "Milk and sugar?"

"White, one sugar thanks…. So, Doctor…, a Time Lord eh?" she said, trying to strike up a conversation with this very non communicative alien.

"Er, yeah, but you don't want to hear about me, what about you, how long have you been a doctor then?"

"Don't want to hear about you!" she said incredulously. "How many aliens do you think I've met?"

He poured the water into the mugs. "Well, I don't know, you didn't know I was an alien when I took my tie off in the street, did you? And Florence Finnegan in the hospital, perfectly normal person, until she had lunch."

He sat at the table, and put her mug of tea in front of her, smiling at her with raised eyebrows. "Okay, you've got a point, so how many aliens are there on Earth?"

"A few hundred at any one time, most of them are decent, hard working individuals, producing high tech consumer gadgets, or some very odd music for some reason," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Occasionally, you get the odd one or two who just don't like you, and want to destroy you."

"What like those metal pepper pots and robots that recently tried to shoot everyone with lasers...? What ever happened to them?"

The Doctor had a far away look in his eyes. "We managed to stop them, sucked them into the Void," he said sadly, remembering someone else who was nearly sucked in with them.

He suddenly switched his mood. "So, you may have met all sorts of camouflaged aliens. Remember 10 Downing Street blowing up? That was aliens from a planet called Raxacoricofallapatorius, wearing dead people's skin, and taking over Parliament."

"Oh, you're having me on, and they blew up Number Ten?"

"No, we blew up Number Ten to stop them."

"You keep saying 'we'."

"Me and Rose, we were a great team…. Anyway, you..., a doctor then."

"Not yet, I'm a medical student, in my final year. I've got to pass my exams first, talking of which, you are going to put me back to where I was…, sorry, there goes that new language again, when I was, aren't you?"

"Of course, drink up and I'll drop you off."

After they had finished their tea, they walked back side by side down the corridor towards the console room. As they walked past the 'forbidden' door, as Martha thought of it, she deliberately looked at it so that he would see her.

"Was that her room?" she asked, nodding at the door.

"Yes…, yes it…, was," he said changing his answer to 'past tense'.

"It must be hard, trying to go on without her," she said, trying to break through his defensive walls.

He looked down at her without speaking, was she being nosey, or was she being a doctor, trying to care about someone who was in pain? "Life goes on," he said as a matter of fact.

They walked into the console room, and Martha sat up on the jump seat, while he went to the console and started to prepare the TARDIS for landing.

"Just one trip, that's what I said. One trip in the TARDIS, and then home," he reminded her, and then he remembered a conversation he'd had with Rose, when she was standing on a beach, crying.

["What're you going to do?"]

["Oh, I've got the TARDIS. Same old life, last of the Time Lords."]

["On your own?"] That question had been the most upsetting of all, because she was really worried that no one would be looking out for him, no one to watch his back. He looked up from the console, over to where Martha was sitting, her face a picture of resigned disappointment.

["Because sometimes I think you need someone to stop you,"] he heard Donna say in his memories. Maybe she was right, Rose always knew what to say and what to do to bring him back from the brink. Maybe to honour her memory, and for his own sake, he should see if Martha would take one more trip, just to see how she gets on.

"Although I suppose we could stretch the definition. Take one trip into past, one trip into future, how do you fancy that?"

"No complaints from me," she said with a smile of anticipation.

He remembered Rose smiling like that. ["I'll never get used to this…. Never. Different ground beneath my feet, different sky, it's beautiful. Oh, I love this. Can I just say..., travelling with you..., I love it."]

He knew exactly the right place to take Martha.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Having decided that he would give Martha one more trip, the Doctor knew exactly where he wanted to go, a place that Rose had loved when she first saw it.

"How about a different planet?" he asked her.

"Can we go to yours?"

He paused while he thought of the best way to say no. "Ah, there's plenty of other places."

"Come on, though. I mean, planet of the Time Lords. That's got to be worth a look. What's it like?" she asked with a smile.

"Well, it's beautiful, yeah," he said with a far away look in his eyes.

"Is it like, you know, outer space cities, all spires and stuff?"

Oh, it was all that and more. "I suppose it is," he said quietly.

"Great big temples and cathedrals!"

"Yeah." The thought of it was almost unbearable.

"Lots of planets in the sky?"

"The sky's a burnt orange, with the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow….." He stopped talking, and stared off into the distance.

"Can we go there?" she whispered. He looked at her for a long, silent moment, his memories of home playing through his head.

"Nah. Where's the fun for me?" he said suddenly. "I don't want to go home. Instead, this is much better. Year five billion and fifty-three, planet New Earth. Second hope of mankind."

He grabbed his long coat off the coral and put it on. "Fifty thousand light years from your old world, and we're slap bang in the middle of New New York." He started running down the ramp. "Although, technically it's the fifteenth New York from the original, so it's New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York. One of the most dazzling cities ever built."

Martha caught up with him, and she stepped outside, into a narrow alleyway, that was pouring with rain.

"Oh, that's nice. Time Lord version of dazzling," she said, as she zipped up her maroon leather jacket.

"Nah, bit of rain never hurt anyone. Come on, let's get under cover!" He ran down the alley, with Martha close on his heels, until they came upon an open area filled with plywood huts that made it look like a shanty town.

"Well, it looks like the same old Earth to me, on a Wednesday afternoon," she complained. To be honest, she felt she'd seen better in the backstreets of London.

"Hold on, hold on. Let's have a look." He used his sonic screwdriver to get a monitor working, and a pleasant blonde lady appeared, giving a traffic report.

"And the driving should be clear and easy, with fifteen extra lanes open for the New New Jersey expressway." A view of a high-tech Manhattan was shown, with flying cars, the view he remembered Rose had loved.

"Oh, that's more like it. That's the view we had last time. This must be the lower levels, down in the base of the tower. Some sort of under-city."

"You've brought me to the slums?" she said, looking at the futuristic city on the screen.

"Much more interesting. It's all cocktails and glitter up there." He pointed at the screen. "This is the real city."

"You'd enjoy anything."

"That's me. Ah, the rain's stopping, better and better."

Hang on, he'd said 'that's the view WE had last time'. "When you say last time, was that…, you, and Rose?"

"Er..., yeah…. Yeah, it was..., yeah."

"You're taking me to the same planets that you took her?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing…, just ever heard the word rebound?"

* * *

"All closed down," the Doctor said as they walked into the pharmacy shanty town.

"Happy?" Martha asked him.

"Happy happy," he said, looking into an empty shack. "New New York can start again. And they've got Novice Hame. Just what every city needs. Cats in charge. Come on, time we were off." He started wandering towards the alleyway.

"But what did he mean..., the Face of Boe…, you're not alone?"

"I don't know."

"You've got me…, is that what he meant?" she asked, smiling hopefully.

"I don't think so…, sorry," he said kindly, as her expression changed to one of disappointment.

"Then what?"

"Doesn't matter. Back to the TARDIS, off we go," he said glibly, continuing his wander towards the alleyway with his hands in his pockets.

'Sod this', Martha thought to herself. She'd had a stomach full of his mysterious, moody, attitude. It was time to cut the crap and tell it like it is. She found an overturned chair, put it straight, and sat down; crossing her arms and legs in defiance.

At the sound of the chair being sat on, he casually turned to look at her, and was surprised at what he saw. "Alright, are you staying?" he said sharply.

Okay, he was still in love with his ex, that was obvious. He wasn't looking for anyone on the rebound; he'd made that obvious as well, to the point of being rude. But he didn't have to be an obnoxious git, he could at least try and be friendly.

"Until you talk to me properly, yes," she said angrily. "He said last of your kind, what does that mean?"

"It really doesn't matter," he told her in an annoyed tone of voice.

"You don't talk, you never say, why not?" She was shouting at him now, it was almost domestic.

He was considering his reply, when the air was filled with voices, singing a hymn. ["Fast falls the eventide."]

They both looked up to the sky. "It's the city," she said.

["The darkness deepens,"] the voices sang.

"They're singing."

["Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail."]

They looked at each other as the singing filled their souls,

"I lied to you, because I liked it," he said quietly. "I could pretend..., just for a bit..., I could imagine they were still alive…, underneath a burnt orange sky." Martha looked at him, silently listening as he started to open up to her. "I'm not just a Time Lord…., I'm the last of the Time Lords. The Face of Boe was wrong..., there's no one else."

"What happened?"

["Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day,"] the voices continued.

He swallowed hard, reached over to another toppled chair, and placed it in front of Martha. "There was a war," he started, hesitantly at first. "A Time War. The last Great Time War. My people fought a race called the Daleks, for the sake of all creation. And they lost," he said sadly. "They lost…, everyone lost." He stared off into the distance as he remembered the end of days on Gallifrey.

"They're all gone now…. My family..., my friends, even that sky." He tried to remember happier times. "Oh, you should have seen it, that old planet." She could see in his eyes that he was looking out at his lost home world.

"The second sun would rise in the south, and the mountains would shine." There was a slight quiver in his voice as he tried to keep it together. "The leaves on the trees were silver..., and when they caught the light every morning..., it looked like a forest on fire. When the autumn came..., the breeze would blow through the branches like a song…."

["The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide."]

"The capital Citadel had an upper city of towers and spires, which spanned the lower on vast arches. These were crowned by further arches and bridges, all of them carrying buildings and gardens, domes and belfries."

"It sounds beautiful," Martha breathed.

He smiled and nodded. "Oh it was magnificent. My family home was situated on the slopes of Lung Mountain in the Cadon range. The red lawns, led to the orchard of Magenta Fruits, where Trunkikes nested in the branches, and Silverband Flutterwings would pollinate the blooms."

Martha now had tears stinging her eyes, understanding why he'd been so reluctant to reminisce about his home, but he'd opened the door on his memories, and they came pouring out.

"In summer, we'd go down the valley to the Cadonflood River, where we'd watch the jousting Neversuch beetles on the bank, the clacking of their antlers filling the warm air, and we'd fish for Yaddlefish in the crystal clear water."

"I'm sorry," Martha said quietly, standing up and wiping the tears from her cheeks with her hands. She felt as though she'd trespassed onto the sacred ground of his private, painful memories. "I think I'm ready to go now."

He stood up, and they slowly walked back to the TARDIS, where he opened the door for her to walk inside. "So, I'd better get you home then, so that you can carry on learning to be a doctor."

"Yeah, I suppose you had," she said disappointedly.

He passed Martha on the ramp, and went up to the console, where he started setting the coordinates. Martha slowly followed him, having one last look around this remarkable ship. The time rotor started pumping up and down, as it made its way into the Vortex. There was a sudden rotation, and a slight shift to the left, which made them grab for something to hold onto.

Martha looked at him in concern, but he just grinned at her. "Turbulence," he said casually, and then went to the monitor to check on the 'turbulence'. The TARDIS had done it to him again, and he started the landing sequence.

He gave a sheepish, apologetic smile to Martha. "Bit of a technical hitch," he said as they felt the TARDIS land. "Bit of a detour." He stopped the time rotor, and shut down the console.

"Technical hitch…? Detour…?" Martha rolled her eyes at him. "What's that, a euphemism for lost?"

"Oi, I'll have you know, I'm not lost," he said as he walked down the ramp. "I'm just not where I wanted us to be." He opened the door, and held it for her to step out.

"Where are we?" she asked him with a smile, looking out over a bay, with skyscrapers in the distance.

The Doctor stepped out after her, and took a few steps forward. "Hah, smell that Atlantic breeze..., nice and cold, lovely." He turned to face her and then looked up. "Martha, have you met my friend?"

She turned around and looked up also. "Is that...? Oh my God! That's the Statue of Liberty!"

"Gateway to the New World," he said. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break free…"

"That's so brilliant. I've always wanted to go to New York. I mean the real New York, not the new, new, new, new, new…"

"Well," he said turning back to look over the Hudson River towards Manhattan. "There's the genuine article. So good, they named it twice. Mind you, it was New Amsterdam originally, harder to say twice. No wonder it didn't catch on. New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam."

"I wonder what year it is 'cos look, the Empire State

Building's not even finished yet."

"Work in progress. Still got a couple floors to go, and if I

know my history, that makes the date somewhere

around…."

Martha picked up a discarded newspaper while he was talking. **"**November 1, 1930," she said.

"You're getting good at this." Wow, after only a couple of trips, she'd managed to get a handle on which time period she was in. He turned around, and realised that she'd been cheating.

"Eighty years ago," she said, as the Doctor takes the newspaper and starts to read the lead story. "It's funny 'cos you see all those old newsreels in black and white like it's so far away, but here we are…, it's real, it's now," she said, laughing at the sheer wonder of it. "Come on, you. Where do we go first?"

She looked at him, and realised that he was frowning at the story. "I think our detour just got longer," he said, as he showed her the headline.

"Hooverville Mystery Deepens," she read. "What's Hooverville?"

"I think I'd better show you. Come on; let's get the ferry over to Manhattan Island."

They wandered down onto the jetty that led to the 'Old Ferry Dock', and boarded the Battery Park - Liberty Island paddle steamer ferry. As they made their way across the Hudson, Martha looked on in wonder at the Clippers and Schooners in full sail, making their way in from the Atlantic and heading for the Ellis Island Immigration Station.

The ferry docked at Battery Park, and they caught a bus which took them the four miles to Central Park. At the Museum of Art, on Fifth Avenue, they hopped off the bus and strolled through the park towards the shanty town on the Central Lawn.

"Herbert Hoover, Thirty First President of the USA, came to power a year ago. Up till then New York was a boom town, the Roaring Twenties, and then…"

"The Wall Street Crash, yeah? When was that, 1929?"

The Doctor was impressed with her knowledge of history. "Yeah. Whole economy wiped out overnight. Thousands of people unemployed. Suddenly the huddled masses doubled in number with nowhere to go. So they ended up here in Central Park."

"What? They actually live in the park? In the middle of the city?" The Doctor didn't answer; he just gave her a look that said 'you'd better believe it'.

"Ordinary people…, lost their jobs," he told her as they walked through the cobbled together shacks. "Couldn't pay the rent and they lost everything." It reminded Martha of the Pharmacy shanty town that they'd visited in New New York, only a few hours earlier and five billion years in the future. "There are places like this all over America…. You only come to Hooverville when there's nowhere else to go."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The rag-tag group of misfits were standing around a bench in Central Park. The young man from Tennessee named Frank, who had become the spokesman for the inhabitants of Hooverville, since Solomon had been killed by the Daleks, had returned from the shanty town.

"Well I talked to 'em and I told 'em what Solomon would've said and I reckon I shamed one or two of 'em," he told Laszlo and Tallulah.

"What did they say?" the Doctor asked.

"They said yes," Frank said with a smile. Tallulah hugged Laszlo around his neck.

"They'll give you a home, Laszlo…. I mean, uh..., don't imagine people ain't gonna stare. I can't promise you'll be at peace but, in the end, that is what Hooverville is for..., people who ain't got nowhere else."

"Thank you. I…, I can't thank you enough," the genetically altered pig-human Laszlo said.

"Well Martha, I reckon that we need to get moving if we're going to catch the ferry over to Liberty Island," the Doctor said.

He turned to Laszlo, Tallulah and Frank. "Good luck, and don't be too despondent, this depression doesn't last forever…, in a few years time, I think America will recover, and over the next few decades will become a force to be reckoned with." They all shook hands and hugged, and the Doctor and Martha walked out of Central Park, to catch a bus to Battery Park.

On Liberty Island, they walked up from the jetty. "Do you reckon it's gonna work, those two?" Martha asked.

The Doctor turned and looked out over the bay. "I don't know, anywhere else in the universe, I might worry about them, but New York, that's what this city's good at…. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and maybe the odd pig-slave-Dalek-mutant-hybrid too."

Martha laughed at that last bit. "The pig and the showgirl."

He smiled at that himself. "The pig and the showgirl."

"Just proves it, I suppose," she stated. "There's someone for everyone."

The Doctor's smile disappeared, as he thought about the someone who was for him. He hadn't had chance to think about her while he was battling the Daleks, but now, at this moment when it was all over and he was victorious once more, she wasn't there to smile that special smile, to hold his hand, to give him that victory hug.

"Maybe," he said sadly, as he turned away and headed for the TARDIS. Martha watched him go; realising that she'd said the wrong thing again, stirred up his memories and his emotions.

She caught up with him and sighed. "Meant to say…, sorry."

"What for?" he asked, it wasn't her fault that he couldn't stop thinking about Rose.

"Just 'cos that Dalek got away. I know what that means to you. Think you'll ever see it again?"

Ah, so it wasn't about Rose, she was empathising with him, over his continuing battle with the Daleks. He unlocked the TARDIS door and thought about her question. While there was just one Dalek alive in the universe, then all life was in danger.

"Oh yes," he said, that one Dalek would find a way of cloning itself and producing an army.

He held the door open, and she walked past him. He paused in the doorway and gazed out into the distance.

"One day," he said quietly, before going inside and closing the door.

He walked up the ramp, and started the time rotor, before looking up at her and smiling. "Are you hungry?" he asked her casually.

"Starving," she replied with a smile.

"Right then, what about if I prepare lunch?"

"Lunch? You're going to make me lunch?"

"Make us lunch…, and it's not a date or anything, it's just a meal, y'know, between breakfast and dinner," he said with a smile and a waggle of his eyebrows.

"Okay, you've got yourself a deal." She hung onto his arm, and they went through to the kitchen. "What are you going to prepare?"

"I thought something from another world, a San Kaloon salad. A baked tuber, a cross between a jacket potato and an aubergine, with a spicy, mixed bean filling, sitting on a bed of sweet and savoury leaves." He remembered when he had taken Rose and Jack to see the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, and they'd had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the pyramid plain. It seemed that everything he did reminded him of Rose, and he wondered how long that would go on for.

In the dining area of the kitchen, he pulled out a chair for her to sit down and did the gentlemanly thing of moving her chair to the table as she sat. He then took two glasses out of the cupboard and poured a glass of sparkling, white wine. He then set about preparing the meal, as Martha watched him, admiring his skill in the kitchen. She casually wondered if he would have cooked for Rose like this, 'of course he would' she thought.

When the meal was ready, he brought over the plates of food, and put them on the table. "Bon appétit," he said with a smile, and they started to eat.

Martha took one mouthful and stopped, her eyes wide.

"Is it alright?" he asked as she stopped eating. "I can do something else if you don't like it."

"Don't like it? This is absolutely gorgeous." She started to devour the food with enthusiasm. The Doctor continued eating, with a large, satisfied smile on his face, he'd still got it.

"Tell me Doctor, do all your trips end up with you nearly being killed?" she asked with a cheeky smile.

"No, most of them are just sight seeing, and having fun, although these last two trips and the detour, haven't turned out quite as I'd planned…, sorry about that."

"Don't be, because in a weird sort of way, I've enjoyed it," she said with a lopsided smile.

"Really?" he asked in surprise, he'd underestimated her.

"Yeah, I mean, it's not every day I get to meet Shakespeare and find out that he's not the serious, sombre character I thought he'd be."

The Doctor laughed at the memory. "He was quite the lady's man, wasn't he?"

"And the witches, don't forget the witches," she said as she put another forkful in her mouth. "Okay, I know they were really aliens, but they sure looked like witches. And, I got to meet the oldest being in the universe before he died, and I helped stop the Daleks from overthrowing the Earth."

"You certainly have a way of looking on the bright side, don't you?"

"Well, no use being maudlin about everything is there? I think you need a positive attitude when you're training to be a doctor."

"Talking of which, what made you want to become a doctor?"

"I think it was when I was a kid, Leo pushed me off a swing once, and I broke my arm. He didn't mean to hurt me, he was just messing about, and he felt really guilty. But travelling in the ambulance, and having my arm put in plaster, it was fascinating, and I think I was bitten by the medical bug."

"Ah, Leo, twenty first birthday, what was all that about outside the tavern? It was a bit 'domestic'."

"Yeah, I suppose it was hard not to notice. Mum and Dad split up a while ago, and Dad's got himself a new girlfriend, and as you'd expect, they don't quite see eye to eye."

"More like fist to eye from what I saw," he said with a cheeky grin.

Martha laughed, and he noticed for the first time, that she had a really nice, bubbly laugh. "It was nearly a cat fight in the middle of the street, how embarrassing would that have been? Somehow, over the years, I've seemed to have ended up as the peacekeeper in the family, even though Tish is the eldest."

"Trust me, emotional maturity has nothing to do with your age." He took her empty plate and put it on his, as he stood up and put them in the sink. He came back with two bowls of an alien fruit salad.

"Ooh, that's tangy and spicy, it's making my tongue tingle, I love it."

"Great, isn't it, it's one of…, Rose's…, favourites," he said, without even realising the effect that statement would have on Martha, and his face took on that sad expression that was becoming all too familiar.

Martha saw that melancholy look come over his face again, it happened every time he mentioned her. He must have had it really bad for this woman, and she started to wonder what she was like. Having seen the kind of life he leads, she must have been brave…, and tough. Did it all get too much for her? Or was it that she met someone else on their travels, and dumped him?

"She had good taste..., in desserts…, and in men," Martha said.

'Yes, she did', the Doctor thought to himself, unaware or just ignoring the intended flirt in her last comment. He had fallen in love with Rose, knowing that eventually the time would come when she would wither and die, and he would live on, but this…, this was unbearable, she was alive, vibrant and in her prime, and yet she may as well have been dead, because she was lost to him, and he yearned to hold her in his arms again.

They finished their desserts in comparative silence, the Doctor deep in his own thoughts and memories, and Martha in her frustration at this attractive and yet seemingly unavailable man she was sharing lunch with. He'd come to a decision, and although Donna said that he needed someone to stop him, and Rose had been mortified at the thought of him travelling alone, he wasn't ready for company just yet, not when everything he did, or everything he said reminded him of what he'd lost.

He contemplated the woman sitting at the table opposite; she had all the makings of a good travelling companion. She wasn't fazed by the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, just like Rose; she was clever, like Rose; she was brave, like Rose; she was resourceful, like Rose. There was just one problem, she wasn't Rose, and that hurt, because this woman opposite was attracted to him and wanted to get emotionally involved, and he just couldn't do that.

If only Donna had agreed to come with him, she had no romantic interest in him whatsoever, and right now, he needed someone he could talk to about Rose. Martha seemed to be jealous of a woman she'd never met and would never have the opportunity to meet, and he couldn't handle her obvious interest in him.

So on the whole, it was probably for the best if he took her home and dropped her off.

"Come on then," he said as he cleared the table and put the crockery and cutlery in the dishwasher. "Let's go back to the console room."

At the console, he started the time rotor and set the coordinates; the TARDIS 'took off', and started twisting its way through the Vortex. Martha held on as the room swayed gently around. The Doctor moved around her, operating various controls as he went, the space-time throttle, the time forwards/backwards controls and the harmonic generator, until finally, he activated the materialise/dematerialise function, and landed the TARDIS.

"There we go…, perfect landing," he declared, looking up at the now stationary time rotor. "Which isn't easy in such a tight spot," he concluded, scratching the back of his head.

"You should be used to tight spots by now," she said with a hint of sarcasm. She looked at the doors, and back to the Doctor. "Where are we?" She asked with an expectant smile.

"The end of the line." There was finality to that statement, which was echoed in his quiet tone of voice.

Martha ran down the ramp to the doors and stopped, looking back to him for reassurance. She's picked up on his tone of voice, and her subconscious was trying to nudge the elbow of her awareness.

"No place like it," he said, and Martha gave a questioning nod to ask if she should open the door. He nodded back, and she opened the door, stepping out into…, her flat.

"Home…. You took me home?"

"In fact, the morning after we left, so you've only been gone about twelve hours, no time at all, really." He started looking around the flat, inspecting some photographs on the shelf.

"But all the stuff we've done—Shakespeare, New New York, old New York?"

"Yep, all in one night…, relatively speaking." That was good for him, last time he tried that, he'd gotten a slap from Jackie Tyler for being twelve months late. "Everything should be just as it was…, books, CDs, laundry." He hooked a pair of knickers off the clothes horse with his finger and held them up.

Martha snatched the offending lingerie from his fingertips and stuffed it in her pocket.

"So, back where you were, as promised."

"This is it?" She asked, knowing the answer. He had only promised one trip, as a thank you for helping him trap the Plasmavore in the Royal Hope Hospital.

He took a deep breath in. "Yeah, I should probably…, um…."

Martha's phone rang and the answering machine picked up 'Hi! I'm out! Leave a message!'

"I'm sorry," she said apologetically, as they stood there looking at each other and listening to the call.

"Martha, are you there? Pick it up, will you?" her mother's voice said out of the phone.

"It's Mum. It'll wait."

"All right then, pretend that you're out if you like." They both had a little giggle at being found out. "I was only calling to say that your sister's on TV. On the news of all things. Just thought you might be interested."

Martha picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. They heard the voice of Professor Lazarus, and then saw an elderly gentleman giving a press conference; her sister, Tish was standing next to him.

"The details are top secret," he was saying.

"How could Tish end up on the news?" Martha asked herself out loud.

"Tonight, I will demonstrate a device…," Lazarus continued.

"She's got a new job. PR for some research lab," she told the Doctor.

"Hmm," he said as he looked at her and then back to the TV.

"…with the push of a single button..., I will change what it means…, to be human," Lazarus concluded.

Martha switched off the TV and turned to look at the Doctor. "Sorry. You were saying we should...?"

The Doctor wasn't paying attention to her, he was staring at the TV, trying to take in what he had just seen and heard. He suddenly realised that Martha was talking to him. "Yes, yes, we should…. One trip is what we said."

"Okay…, I suppose things just kind of…, escalated," she said with a smile, resigned to the fact that it was over, and he was moving on.

"Mmm…. Seems to happen to me a lot," he said quietly, with a frown.

"Thank you…, for everything," she said sincerely, with a sad smile.

"It was my pleasure." He gave her a warm smile, and opened the TARDIS door, stepping inside. Martha gasped a breath and blinked back the tears that were stinging her eyes. This incredible, gorgeous man had breezed into her life, turned it upside down and inside out, and now was leaving, probably never to be seen again, unless he stepped in front of her on some street in the future, and took his tie off again.

She heard the engine start up and backed away as the TARDIS started to dematerialise, sending a gentle breeze through the room. 'Now what?' she thought to herself as she turned her back on the space where the TARDIS had been. What did she do now, go back to her studies, and become a doctor? That would be hard, after the distraction of the last few days. I mean, come on, she'd been to the moon, met aliens, met Shakespeare, and saved the Earth, it would be hard to top all that by just living a normal life.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Thank you…, for everything," Martha said sincerely, with a sad smile as they stood outside the TARDIS.

"It was my pleasure," the Doctor said with a warm smile in return. He opened the TARDIS door, and stepped inside, walking up the ramp to the console, powering up the atom accelerator, and releasing the time rotor handbrake to start it pumping up and down. So, here he was again, alone with his thoughts, with his memories, and the words of Professor Lazarus echoing in his mind.

"I will change what it means to be human?" he said out loud. He looked urgently at the console and flicked the switch on the harmonic generator, and slammed home the materialise/dematerialise lever.

Martha was still standing with her back to the window, where the TARDIS had been, seconds before. She was reflecting sadly, on the most incredible man that she had ever met, and couldn't stop thinking about. He'd kissed her in the hospital, and it was…, wonderful, she'd felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and that had never happened before, on the rare occasion when she kissed a boyfriend.

At first, she thought it was wishful thinking, when she heard that magical sound. But no, she felt the breeze, and turned to see it materialise once more in her flat.

The door opened, and the Doctor stuck his head out. "No, I'm sorry; did he say he was going to change what it means to be human?"

"I think so, yeah…, why, is it important?"

He gave her that look, the one like she had just dribbled down her purple blouse. "Well, unless he means eating too much, drinking too much, making stupid mistakes, and having a predisposition for self annihilation, then yes, it's very important."

He stepped back into the room and switched the TV back on, but the story had moved on. It was the 24 hour news channel, and the story would come around again in about half an hour. "Right, first things first Martha, put the kettle on, I think we need a cuppa," he said, sitting on the sofa. "Secondly, you need to phone your sister and get an invite to this shindig this evening."

"Oi mister," she said in pretend annoyance. "You've dumped me, remember? I don't travel with you anymore, or had you forgotten?"

He looked up at her and gave her one of his boyish grins. "Wellll, if you don't want to come with me…." He reached inside his jacket and pulled out the wallet with the psychic paper. "...I can always gatecrash," he said, waving it at her.

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "I'll put the kettle on." She was only too happy to make a cup of tea; it meant that he would be staying for at least a little bit longer. And actually, if they went to this Professor Lazarus presentation, it would give her a chance to walk in on the Doctor's arm, and hopefully he would see what a great couple they would make together.

They sat there, drinking tea, as the story cycled around again, and they got the full story. Richard Lazarus had been working for decades on a gene manipulator that he hoped would slow down, prevent, and even reverse cellular ageing. The Lazarus Laboratories in Southwark would hold a black tie event this evening, where Professor Lazarus would demonstrate the culmination of his life's work.

"Right then, I need to get dressed," he said as he sprang up off the sofa and headed for the TARDIS door. "I'll see you in your glad rags in a few minutes."

"You'll do no such thing," she said indignantly. "You'll see me in my evening gown in about an hour," and went through to the bathroom to have a long soak, and only then would she get dressed and put her face on.

In the TARDIS wardrobe, (which Rose always called a clothing department), he found his dinner suit still on the hanger from the last time he had worn it. He had a flashback, as he saw Rose in her maids outfit, serving drinks and Hors d'oeuvres to guests at Jackie Tyler's fortieth birthday party in the alternate universe.

Was she still living at the mansion with her parents, he wondered, or had she moved into her own place? Money for a nice place, in a posh area of London wouldn't be a problem, as her 'new' father was loaded. He hoped she was having a good life, and that now and again she would give a thought to an old friend from the old world.

He put the dinner suit on, all except the bow tie, and looked at himself in the full length mirror, giving a lopsided smile at his black converse on his feet. You never knew when you might need to run, and tonight promised to be one of those occasions. He went back through the console room, and into Martha's flat. She wouldn't be ready for ages yet, so he went to find the kettle in the kitchen and make another cup of tea.

He was sitting on the sofa, watching the news, when Martha emerged from her bedroom in a flowing, deep purple, evening gown. Her hair was swept back with a black headband, and she looked a million dollars. The Doctor stood politely and stared at her, really seeing her for the first time. She wasn't a medical student, or a passenger, she was a beautiful woman.

"You scrub up well," she said with a smile.

"Eh? Er, yeah…, and you," he said absently. "Er, I don't mean scrub up…, I mean you look…." He wanted to say beautiful, because she was, but he felt that she might take that the wrong way, and to him, at the moment, only Rose could be called beautiful. "You look very nice."

"Nice?" She said, oh well, I suppose that would have to do for now. "Thank you."

She noticed that he'd got his bow tie in his hand. "Would you like me to do that?"

"Er, no, I can do it myself really; I just wanted to leave it until the last minute. Y'know, makes me feel all restricted around my neck."

"Come here," she said in a motherly tone. She took the bow tie off him and started to feed it around his collar, and tie it. She smiled, as he behaved like a young child being forced to wear their Sunday best. "There you are, all done."

'Beep, beep'.

They heard a car horn outside. "Ah, that'll be the taxi; I called them while I was getting ready."

"Well then Miss Jones, would you do me the honour of letting me accompany you to an evening of revelations?" He held out his arm and waggled his eyebrows.

"Well Doctor, how could a lady possibly refuse?"

* * *

After a very eventful evening of scientific revelations, Martha and the Doctor were sitting in a taxi, heading back to her flat. She was reflecting on how they had seemed to have gotten a little closer this evening, and there hadn't been any awkward silences where he would think about his ex.

The Doctor, on the other hand, was reflecting on how he never had trouble with the mothers of his companions in the past, and started a role call of past, female assistants. He could discount Susan, because she was family, her mother, his daughter had died when she was young, and he doubted his own daughter would have slapped his face anyway.

There had been Barbara, Vicki, Katarina, Sarah, Dodo, Polly, Vicky, Zoe, Liz, Jo, Sarah Jane, Leela, Romana, Nyssa, Tegan, Sharon, Peri, Mel, Ace, Benny, Roz, Olla, Grace, Stacey, Izzy, Fey, Destrii, Samantha, Compassion, Anji, and Ali….

He stopped, stunned by the number of people he had travelled with over the years, and they were only the females, and not once did he have a domestic altercation with their mothers. So it was Jackie Tyler who had started the current trend of giving him a slap, and Martha's mother, Francine, seemed keen to continue the trend and turn it into a tradition.

The Doctor had a great deal of respect for Clive Jones, having met his ex wife. At first, he wondered if it was Francine who had proposed to Clive, but then realised that she had probably told him that they were getting married, and the man deserved a medal for staying with her long enough to produce three children.

He thought about Jackie Tyler; she was scary, but it was because she was fiercely protective of her daughter. Francine on the other hand, was just plain scary. It never occurred to him that Francine may have become bitter and twisted because Clive had strayed from the fold, so to speak.

The taxi pulled up outside Martha's flat, and they climbed out, paid the driver and entered the flat. They squeezed past the TARDIS and stood in front of the doors.

He put the key in the lock and opened the door. "Something else that just kind of escalated, then."

"I can see a pattern developing…, you should take more care in the future, and the past, and whatever other time period you find yourself in," she said with a laugh.

"its good fun, though, isn't it?" he laughed.

"Yeah."

"So, what d'you say..., one more trip?"

There was a long pause while she thought about his offer. "No…, sorry."

"What do you mean? I thought you liked it," he said in surprise.

"I do, but I can't go on like this. 'One more trip.' It's not fair," she told him; she'd had enough of playing second fiddle to the ghost of his ex girlfriend.

"What're you talking about?" He was genuinely baffled by her refusal.

"I don't want to be just a passenger anymore. Someone you take along for a treat. If that's how you still see me, well, I'd rather stay here."

Ah, so that was it, she wanted to sign up for the long haul; he had another flashback.

["What're you going to do?"]

["Oh, I've got the TARDIS. Same old life, last of the Time Lords."]

["On your own?"]

"Okay, then…, if that's what you want," he said, as long as she realised that he was a one woman man, and that woman was Rose, then fine, she'd be a brilliant travelling companion.

Martha gave him the slightest 'head wobble' of attitude. "Right." After all that they'd been through, and everything she'd done for him, even saving his life! "Well we've already said good-bye once today so it's really best if you just go," she said angrily, as she turned her back on him and walked away.

She didn't hear him say goodbye, she didn't hear the door close, or the engine start up, it was as if he hadn't moved at all. She turned around and saw him standing there with his hands in his pockets, as though he was waiting for something.

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

"What...? I said okay," he said. What was the matter, hadn't she heard him?

"Sorry?" she said with a frown of confusion.

He nodded his head sideways at the door. "Okay."

The realisation hit her and she ran to him and hugged him around the neck. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!"

"Welllll, you were never really just a passenger, were you?" he said with a smile, as she ran past him and into the TARDIS.

He closed the doors, and looked over to the console, where Martha stood with an excited smile. He walked up the ramp, and activated the inertial dampers, engaged the harmonic generator, released the locking down mechanism, pulled the engine release lever, activated the materialise/dematerialise function, and gradually increased the space-time throttle, putting the TARDIS into the Vortex.

"So where do we go next then?" she asked excitedly.

He thought about that question with a smile, and then realised that there had been a serious oversight on their part. He looked her up and down, which Martha mistook for an appreciative look, and blushed.

"Now, I know Bond girls get dressed up to the nine's, when they go to cocktail parties where the villains are," he told her. "But trust me; there aren't many adventures we've had where wearing an evening gown and high heels has been an advantage."

There was one occasion he thought about, where they went to a swanky, fortieth birthday party at a mansion, in another universe….

"However, while we are dressed for a party, how does Times Square, 20th July 1969 sound?"

"Hang on, isn't that the moon landing?"

"Yep, it's one hell of a party." He set the controls, and landed the TARDIS in the middle of Times Square. Martha hurried down the ramp, and out the door, with the Doctor following her out into the throng of party goers.

Hours later, they returned to the TARDIS, laughing and giggling, intoxicated with the atmosphere of celebration.

"Do you want to see them do it?" The Doctor asked her with a grin.

"What, you mean actually see them land?"

He nodded, and set the coordinates for the Sea of Tranquility on the moon.

"Do we have to watch it on a monitor or something?" she asked him, wondering how they were going to watch the historic event.

"Why, don't you want to see it for real?" he asked her as he shut down the console and headed for the doors.

"But what about the air?" she called after him as he turned the latch.

He grinned at her. "We've got plenty." He opened the doors, and Martha gasped at the view, it was the second time she'd seen that view in as many days, and it was still stunning. He looked up into the inky blackness, and pointed at a star that seemed to be moving.

"There they are," he said, pointing at the light that was getting larger by the second. A couple of minutes later, they could clearly see the Lunar Excursion Module hovering over the lunar landscape, kicking up dust as it went. Eventually, there was a huge plume of grey dust, as the LEM touched down. The dust fell, as quickly as it had risen, thanks to the vacuum of space.

"Oh my God, that was fantastic," she said, clapping her hands. "Can we get any closer, and, I don't know, maybe follow them down?"

He grinned at her. "Bitten by the bug huh?"

He reset the console again, then again…, and again, until they had seen the landing in as many different ways as he could think of.

"Well, I think we've done that to death, time to go and get you something to wear."

He performed the tricky landing again, and put the TARDIS in her flat. As she went into her bedroom to pack, the Doctor stood, leaning against the door, with his arms crossed. After a few minutes, she came out of her bedroom carrying a large, black holdall. She went to the clothes horse, and putting the holdall on the floor, grabbed all her underwear and stuffed it inside before zipping it up.

"There, I'm ready," she said with a satisfied smile. The Doctor stepped aside as she picked up the holdall, and stepped inside, never noticing that there was a message on her answer phone.

The Doctor started the time rotor once more, before turning to her and giving her a welcoming smile. "Right then, we'd better find somewhere for you to put all that and get changed..., this way."

He led her through the corridor that led away from the console room. They went past the forbidden 'Rose's' room, although Martha was dying to have a peek inside, to see if she could glean some information on the woman who had made such an impact on his life.

They went past the kitchen come dining room, past a couple of other doors, and a door to their left seemed to click open on its own.

"Here we are then, I think this is your room," he said, opening the door wide for her.

"Hang on, this is like my old bedroom back at Mum's house, like it was before I moved into my flat," she said, looking at him suspiciously.

"Whoops, the TARDIS taps into your strongest memories, the ones with the strongest emotional commitment."

"You mean that your ship is in my head?" she asked in disbelief.

"Oh yes," he said as a matter of fact. "She's trying to make you feel at home."

"What, and now you're telling me the TARDIS is alive."

He gave her one of his boyish grins. "Yeah, isn't that brilliant."

"Yeah, terrific," she said uncertainly.

"I'll leave you to get settled, and see you in the console room when you're done." He exited the room and gently closed the door behind him.

A half hour later, Martha entered the console room, dressed in a black lace top, purple skirt and brown boots; she'd replaced the black head band with a light purple one. The Doctor had changed back into his brown pinstriped suit, but instead of a shirt and tie, he'd gone for a denim shirt with a white T-shirt underneath.

He was frowning in concentration at the monitor, as she approached.

"Found something interesting?" she asked, as she stood by his side and looked at the unintelligible symbols on the screen.

"Mmmm, yeah, I think I've found our next adventure."

"Really?" she said, a bit apprehensive about him trying to get them killed again.

"Yeah, a collapsing star is in the first stages of forming a black hole, which happens all the time…, what's interesting though is the shape of time and space around it are being distorted to form a Starman."

"What's a Starman when its a home?"

"A Starman, is a cosmic being with primitive consciousness. They travel through space and time on the energy they receive from eating stars, and sometimes, if you're unlucky, they migrate from their own time and go trampling through existence, wiping it clean and rewriting history, rewriting the laws of science itself."

"Okay, not good then?" she said.

He straightened up from the console. "Come through to the Library, I'll show you a published paper on them." He walked towards the corridor. "My people used to watch out for them and keep them in check."

"So who does it now?" she asked in concern.

He looked over at her and smiled. "You're looking at him."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

In the Library, the Doctor perused the shelves, searching for a particular publication.

"Ah, here we are," he announced, and pulled out a thin, hard backed book. He handed it to Martha, and they sat on the comfy sofa.

"Starmen. The genesis, aetiology and morphology of a trans-dimensional, polymorphic entity," she read out loud. "A treatise by Arkytior. Seventh year student, Prydonian Academy." She looked up at the Doctor with a questioning look.

"Don't worry; the title is worse than its contents. It's a student paper from the Academy on Gallifrey, it's very readable and informative."

"O-kay," she said uncertainly. "I'll give it a go."

Thanks to all the studying that she had been doing recently to become a doctor, she was able to read and retain information really quickly, and by the time she'd finished reading the paper, she was quite the expert on the Starmen.

"Fascinating," she said, putting the book on the low table in front of her. "How are you going to stop it?"

"Well, when it appeared as two giant humanoids on Karkinos, I used a device that had the power of a collapsed star in it. It was made by a very clever, and not very nice, character called the Exalted Holgoroth of All Tagkhanastria."

"That's alright then," she said, relieved that he had a method of stopping this very dangerous threat.

"Ah, but then there was a larger Starman, created by ripples from the Karkinos Starman. That one migrated to ancient Babylon, where it appeared as a kind of giant goat-fish. I lost the orb of the Exalted Holgoroth of All Tagkhanastria when I fought that one," he told her.

"Giant goat-fish?"

"Yeah, it had no back legs, just the tail of a rotten fish, huge and bloated, and it pulled itself along with two immense lizard-like arms. Its head had dangling fleshy tendrils and two horny protuberances jutting from the top," he told her, a distant look in his eyes as her remembered.

"It had the same dead, distant eyes as the twin giants, and the same faint appearance as if it was there but somehow not there at the same time. The strangest thing of all was what looked like water gushing from its shoulders, giving the appearance of two long, drooping silver wings."

"Blimey, they really can take on any appearance then. Do you know what this next one is going to look like…?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but she interrupted him. "Oh, and where and when its going to appear…?" He went to answer again. "Oh, and how we're going to beat it?"

He smiled at her, she'd said 'how are WE going to beat it', she was part of the TARDIS team for sure. "Let's go back to the console, and I can scan the forming Starman."

At the console, the Doctor scanned the collapsing star, and the forming trans-dimensional being. He tracked it forwards in time, predicting its migration, and calculating the point where it would appear.

"Ooh, that's new," he said. "Not seen that configuration before."

"What is it, is something wrong?" Martha asked.

"No, not really, unless you call four eggs wrong? Well, four pod like things containing body parts wrong. Well, four things containing a head, chest, abdomen, and tail, that will form a giant lizard when they hatch and fuse together, wrong."

"Yeah, that sounds very wrong. You'd better fill me in on the details…, and where did you say it was migrating to?"

"Er, I didn't…, it's your hometown…, London."

* * *

The Doctor walked into the console room carrying an ancient looking bow, and a quiver of arrows.

"What the hell are you going to do with those?" Martha asked him, raising an enquiring eyebrow. "I didn't think you killed things."

He gave her a puzzled frown, and then realised what she was talking about. "Oh, these…, no, these aren't to kill anything."

He took an arrow out of the quiver, and showed her the tip, which looked like the sort of tracking beacon that she'd seen used on whales and sharks on those wildlife documentaries on TV.

"Single shot Vortex manipulator; I've set them for quiet little planets out in the sticks. Once it's deployed, 'pop', it transports the body part to a different time and location, preventing the Starman from fully forming, and everyone can live happily ever after." he finished.

Martha smiled at him. "Brilliant! I've looked at the map, and I know where we've got to go, so what are we waiting for?"

He switched on his manic smile. "Allonz-y," he said, and they ran down the ramp to the doors.

The Doctor landed the TARDIS on Hampstead Heath, in the vain hope that the Starman would materialise there where it could be more easily dealt with.

No such luck! as the time to the pending migration got closer, so did the accuracy of the predictive scan, and it now appeared it was going to be near or in Hampstead Underground Station.

"We need a taxi to get there in time," Martha told him, and he wasn't going to argue, this was her town, and he deferred to her greater knowledge. She flagged down a black taxi, and the driver gave them a suspicious look, what with the Doctor having a long bow over his back, and Martha carrying a quiver of arrows.

"Wimbledon Archery Club," he said with a smile. "Competition day today…, bit of a grudge match with the Hampstead club, what with them thinking they're superior, with all that heath to shoot in."

Martha stood in front of him and rolled her eyes. "Take no notice; he's just having a laugh."

They climbed into the taxi, and the driver set off for their destination, a short drive away. The taxi pulled up in Heath Street, a quiet, shop filled street that had a gentle incline. Martha paid the taxi fare, and they climbed out onto the street. The Doctor looked up the street, but Martha directed him down, towards the station, where the Starman migration would occur.

"Doctor...? Doctor! Doctor!" A young, blonde woman ran out of a shop behind them.

"Hello. Sorry, bit of a rush…, there's a sort of thing happening…, fairly important we stop it," he said pointing down the street where Martha was waiting impatiently.

"My God, it's you…. It really is you…. Oh, you don't remember me, do you?"

Martha walked back towards him. "Doctor, we haven't got time for this, the migration's started."

"Look, sorry, I've got a bit of a complex life. Things don't always happen to me in quite the right order. Gets a bit confusing at times, especially at weddings. I'm rubbish at weddings..., especially my own," he rambled on.

"Oh, my God, of course," she said in realisation. "You're a time traveller. It hasn't happened to you yet. None of it. It's still in your future."

"What hasn't happened?" Suddenly, he knew there was something important about this woman, something that would affect his future, or his past, or both.

"Doctor, please, twenty minutes to red hatching," Martha called to him. He had colour coded the eggs in order of seriousness, green was the tail hatching, which wasn't too much of a problem. The amber hatching was the lower torso, which the tail would attach to.

Next would be the red hatching, the upper torso, which would create a headless, terrible lizard, a dino-saur. The fourth and final hatching would be the head of the Starman, and Martha was a bit puzzled by the Doctor's choice of colour; mauve, wasn't it red for danger?

"It was me. Oh, for God's sake, it was me all along. You got it all from me," she realised, as though a final part of a jigsaw had fallen into place.

"Got what?" he asked.

"Okay, listen," she said, taking a deep breath. "One day you're going to get stuck in 1969. Make sure you've got this with you." She handed him a purple, plastic folder with paperwork inside. "You're going to need it."

"Doctor!" Martha shouted this time.

"Yeah, listen, listen, got to dash…. Things happening…, well, four things…, well, four things and a lizard."

"Okay…. No worries. On you go. See you around some day."

He sets off down the street, but then turns one final time. "What was your name?"

"Sally Sparrow."

"Good to meet you, Sally Sparrow."

An unshaven man walks down the street towards her, carrying a plastic carton of milk, and looking as though he's seen a ghost. Sally looks up at him, smiles, and holds his hand.

"Goodbye, Doctor." They turn around and walk into the book and DVD shop. He watched them with a bemused look on his face, it was funny how sometimes things happened out of sequence.

Talking of things happening, he remembered why they had come to this street, and turned to run after Martha.

"Who was that then?" she asked him when he fell in step beside her. "And what was that folder she gave you?"

"Absolutely no idea! A bit like Queen Liz..., back there with Shakespeare." He put the folder in his 'larger on the inside' coat pocket. "But whatever's in this folder sounds very important."

"Aren't you going to look then?" she asked, as she turned the corner, grabbing his elbow to pull him to follow her into the purple bricked Hampstead Station.

"When the time's right," is all he would say. "Right then, so where's the tail and lower torso?"

He took out his sonic screwdriver and started scanning the concourse, grinning manically at commuters who were giving them weird looks, while Martha just smiled weakly and apologetically.

"Where is it then?" she whispered, smiling at a man in a smart suit, and carrying a briefcase.

The Doctor looked at the blue, holographic projection of the scan results that hovered above the end of his sonic device. "Oh, no, no, no, no…, we're at the entrance to an underground rail system, where's the worst place it could appear?"

Martha looked down at the floor, and then at the Doctor.

"Yep," he said in resignation, and they headed for the stairway that led down to the lower levels. The Doctor was remembering his second incarnation, when he went down into Covent Garden Station and encountered the robotic Yeti, controlled by the Great Intelligence, what a hoot that had been.

There were people passing them, heading for the entrance, so he presumed that a train had just been and gone, that would mean that the platform would be empty while they located the parts of the Starman.

One hundred and ninety two feet below Hampstead, they walked along the purple and white tiled passages, until they came to a platform that had the name 'Heath Street' in mosaic on the curved wall. The Doctor turned right and followed his sonic to the end of the platform. 'Please don't let it be in the tunnels' he thought to himself, and breathed a sigh of relief when the readings indicated a metal service door in the wall.

He tried the handle, and of course, the door was locked, being for 'staff only'. A quick change of setting on the sonic, the lock clicked open, and he popped his head inside. By the light of the sonic, he could see an old style, metal light switch on the end of metal cable conduit. He flicked the switch, and a row of lights on the ceiling, in safety cages threw a dim light into the passageway.

He stepped into the passageway, and Martha followed, closing the door behind her. He put the sonic in his pocket, and took the longbow off his back.

"This is it then," he said, taking one of the arrows out of the quiver. "Stay alert, and get ready to keep me supplied with arrows."

"Is it dangerous then, if it's still incomplete?" she asked him, searching the shadows ahead.

"Each body part can act independently. The tail can act like a whip, or like a python, and the hind legs on the lower torso have some nasty claws that can disembowel you. When the two parts converge, you've got a vicious alien to deal with."

"Right, sorry I asked."

They started moving down the passageway, the Doctor leading the way, with an arrow nocked and ready to shoot; Martha was at his elbow, looking past him. In the distance, she could make out a dark shape, which was roughly the size of a wardrobe lying on its side. He approached slowly, and gently tapped it with his foot, drawing the bow back, ready to shoot. The organic looking wardrobe rocked easily, and he realised it was empty; this was the tail or lower torso that had already hatched.

"Hmmm, I wonder where that's gone." He asked out loud.

Martha didn't answer; instead, he heard a muffled gurgling noise and turned around to look at her. She was laying on the floor, with a massive snake wrapped around her body, the thin, tail end around her neck, strangling her.

"Martha!" He quickly put the bow down, and knelt beside her, trying to wrap the end of the snake like tail around his arm. Martha gave a weak gasp; her ribs were being crushed by the muscular coils around her body. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, adjusting the setting and pushing it hard against the hard, scaly skin of the disembodied tail.

The pulse from the sonic caused the muscular tail to spasm, and like a spring, the coiled tail released its energy by straightening out, throwing Martha in one direction, and knocking the Doctor in another. He landed on his back, with the heavy tail pinning him to the floor. He wrapped his arms and legs around it, trying to prevent it from coiling around him when it recovered.

Martha was on her hands and knees, coughing and gasping, rubbing her neck with one hand, when she saw the Doctor struggling with the snake-tail. She scrambled forwards, picking up the bow and arrow and aiming it in his direction.

"MARTHA, NO!" He shouted, if the arrow hit the tail, it would jump into another time and place, and take him with it, but it was too late. In slow motion, he saw the arrow fly towards him, and then..., past him, over his head, and into the bipedal torso of the second part of the Starman that was standing over him, sharp talons ready to strike.

The passageway was filled with a blue light, as the torso vanished into the Void. The Doctor let go of the tail, and kicked it against the wall opposite with as much force as he could muster. Martha grabbed another arrow, put it in the bow as quickly as she could, and shot. There was another flash of blue light, as the tail followed the torso into the Void.

He turned to look at her and laughed. "Hah, where did you learn to shoot a bow and arrow?"

"Wimbledon Archery Club," she laughed. "No, we had Nerf bow and arrows when we were kids, y'know, they fire foam arrows. Tish and Leo never stood a chance against me."

"Well, I for one am glad they didn't." He got to his feet and helped her up. "Come on, let's find the other two parts, and send them off somewhere else."

Further down the passageway, they found the second 'egg case' that the lower torso had hatched from. They continued on and saw another of the 'eggs'. This one definitely still had the body part in it, because they could hear it breaking out. The Doctor shot an arrow, and a blue flash told them that it had been dispatched into the Void.

"Just one more to go," he said with a smile. "I think you should have the honour." He handed over the bow, and took the quiver from her.

They moved ahead several metres, and saw the last of the eggs. The Doctor scanned it to make sure that the body part was still inside, and nodded to Martha. "It's the head..., all yours."

The bow creaked as she drew back the string, a satisfying 'thrum', whistle, and thud as she released the arrow, and a blue flash of light as the last part of the multi-dimensional entity disappeared into the Vortex.

"Yes!" He said, pumping the air, and pulling her into a hug. "Good shot Marion, Sherwood is once again safe from the Sheriff of Nottingham, time for a cup of tea."

Laughing, they walked arm in arm, back to the platform, and on up to the street, where they caught the 603 to Hampstead Heath. After a short walk across the Heath, they reached the TARDIS and let themselves in.

After a really welcome cup of tea, Martha went to her room and fifteen minutes later, entered the console room, dressed in black trousers, purple vest top and a black cardigan. She noticed that the Doctor had changed into a blue pin striped suit with a purple shirt and dark T-shirt.

"Do you have some sort of communicator, like they do on Star Trek?" she asked him, fiddling with her mobile phone. "I was going to phone home and see how everyone was after the other evening at the Lazarus Laboratories."

"I have got a phone here," he said, nodding at the trim phone on the console. "But let me have a look at your mobile," he said, taking it off her as he took out his sonic screwdriver.

After a few seconds of fiddling, and wandering around the console…. "There we go! Universal Roaming…, never have to worry about a signal again," he said, as he tossed the phone back to her.

"No way! But it's... too mad! You're telling me I can call anyone, anywhere in Space and Time on my mobile?!"

"Long as you know the area code…, frequent Fliers' privilege," he told her with a smile." "Go on…, try it."

Martha started to dial home, when the TARDIS suddenly jerked sideways, throwing Martha to the floor. The Doctor managed to hold on to the console, and studied the monitor.

"Distress signal! Locking on!" His red converse flicked a lever on the console. "Might be a bit of…," he started to say, as the TARDIS gave another jolt, throwing them around again. "….Turbulence." He popped his head above the console to see if she was alright. "Sorry!"

They both climbed to their feet. "Come on Martha! Let's take a look!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"This is never your ship!" Orin Scannell said, as he walked up to the blue wooden box. He was a crewman on the SS Pentallian, which used energy scoops to gather fuel from the atmosphere of a star. Unfortunately the star Torajii, wasn't just a star, it was a sentient being, and it had defended itself.

"Compact! Eh!" he said as he walked around from behind the TARDIS. "And another good word, robust...! Barely a scorch mark on her," he said with pride.

"We can't just leave them drifting with no fuel," Martha said with concern. They'd had to dump the fuel that they had scooped from Torajii, so that the Doctor could live, and the ship would be allowed to leave.

"We've sent out an official mayday. The authorities will pick us up soon enough," Riley Vashtee, the only other surviving crew member told them.

"Though how we explain what happened," Scannell started to say.

"Just tell them," The Doctor interrupted. "That sun needs care and protection, just like any other living thing." Scannell nodded in agreement, five of their friends had died learning that lesson.

The Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS, and Martha started to follow, when Riley rushed forwards, and gently held her elbow. "So… uh, you're off then," he said, and Martha nodded. They had shared a tender moment when they had been trapped in an escape pod and jettisoned towards the star.

"No chance I'll see you again?" he asked hopefully.

"Not really," she replied, and saw the disappointment on his face. "It was nice…, not dying with you." They both gave an unenthusiastic laugh. "I reckon you'll find someone worth believing in."

He looked her in the eyes. "I think I already did."

Martha returned the look, and something passed between them. She grabbed him into a passionate, post adrenalin kiss. "Well done," she said, backing into the TARDIS. "Very hot."

She stepped inside, and walked up the ramp towards the Doctor. "So! Didn't really need you in the end, did we?!" She said jokingly, but when she saw his face, he was deep in thought, with an impassive expression. "Sorry…, how're you doing?

He looked at her for a long while, before suddenly snapped out of his reflective mood, in that mercurial way of his. "Now! What do you say? Ice skating on the mineral lakes of Cuhlhan, fancy it?"

"Whatever you like," she said in a quiet, subdued voice. She thought he was going to open up to her, but he'd completely deflected the question of how he was feeling…, again.

He gave a concerned glance in her direction, and saw that she was upset by his response. "By the way." He reached into his inside pocket, "You'll be needing this." And pulled out a key, on a chain.

"Really?!" She asked in disbelief.

"Frequent Flier's Privilege," he told her, as he lowered the key into her cupped hands. "Thank you," he said solemnly.

"Don't mention it," she replied with a weak smile, and then remembered that she'd had a final farewell phone call with her mum, when she thought she was going to die in that escape pod.

"Oh no, Mum," she said, as she reached her phone out of her pocket and selected her mum's number.

"Hello?" her mum said.

"Me again!" She said in a light hearted tone.

"Three calls in one day," Francine said sarcastically, she was lucky if she got one call a month.

"Sorry about earlier..., over emotional..., mad day!"

"What are you doing tonight? Why don't you come round? I'll make something nice and we can catch up."

"Yeah! Tonight. Do my best. Um, just remind me, what day is it again?"

"Election day."

"Right..., 'course. I'll be round for tea..., roughly."

"And what about…" Francine was going to aske about the Doctor, when Martha interrupted her.

"Anyway, gotta go! See you later! Love you!" She turned to look at the Doctor, who was looking at her over the console. "Er, sorry about that…, I sort of, erm, phoned her when I was stuck in that escape pod, thinking I was going to die."

"Are you alright?" he asked her in return.

"Yeah, I'm fine now…. So where were you taking me skating?" she asked, changing the mood.

He smiled at her. "The mineral lakes of Cuhlhan."

"Sounds great, just what we need, a bit of fun."

"Right then." He set the coordinates on the console, and she felt the TARDIS weave its way through the Vortex to its destination. "Now, let's have a bite to eat and get changed."

She followed him out of the console room and into the kitchen, where they made some sandwiches.

"Will I need warm clothes, I mean, how cold are these crystal lakes?" she asked him as they sat down to eat.

"It's not cold at all…, I mean, I know I called it 'ice skating', but really, its crystal skating to be precise. I only said ice skating to differentiate it from roller skating…, and it's more crystal sliding, than skating."

They finished their sandwiches, and headed for their respective rooms to freshen up and change their clothes. They both reappeared in the console room sometime later. The Doctor was back in his familiar brown suit, and Martha had changed her top for a black vest top with leather jacket, and she'd put her hair into a ponytail. She was starting to get her 'space legs' in the TARDIS, because she could feel it materialise into normal space, and heard the soft 'clomp' as it gently landed.

"There you are then, its evening twilight out there, and I'll let you have the first look," he said with a knowing smile.

She gave him an uncertain, questioning look, before walking down the ramp and opening the doors. What she saw took her breath away. The TARDIS had landed in a pedestrian area, which curved away to the left and right. Behind them were shops and restaurants, and in front of them..., well, it was stunning.

A flat sheet of what looked like ice, stretched off into the distance, and it glowed with subtle shades of pinks, greens, blues, yellows and purples, which seemed to light the very air itself.

"Oh..., my..., God!" Martha breathed. "Its..., its..."

"It's a single crystal, polished over millennia by tiny sand grains until it became a mirror smooth sheet, the size of Lake Windermere."

"Its..., its..." She was still struggling to find words to describe the spectacle in front of her.

"There are powerful lamps buried at the edges that internally illuminate the crystal by refraction," he said, reducing the breathtaking spectacle into a scientific explanation. "Come on, let's go, and get some skates on."

As they walked to the edge of the paved area, Martha noticed that there were people on the crystal lake, zooming around, spinning and dancing as they went. In the distance, she could see a sailing ship on skis, gliding silently into the distance.

At the very edge of the lake, there were bench seats, with foot lockers underneath, that contained self adjusting skating boots, with soft, felt like blades that slipped over the crystal. They sat down and changed their footwear, putting their own shoes in the lockers, before teetering out onto the crystal 'ice'.

Martha had been ice skating before, at the Queens Ice Rink and Bowl in Bayswater, with Tish and Leo, and quickly got the hang of this new experience. And the Doctor…, well, he was just the Doctor, and would claim it was his superior Gallifreyan physiology that made him a natural on skates.

There were children, zooming around them, playing tag, and a version of football that involved a large, soft disc, similar to an ice hockey puck. Martha laughed, when a family pet that resembled a bear cub, tried to follow the family onto the ice, and then tried to work out why it could no longer walk properly.

Martha was skating alone at one point, when the Doctor nonchalantly glided along side her with his hands in his pockets, his body sideways to the direction of travel, grinning at her like an idiot. She burst out laughing, and he slowly started to rotate as he slid along.

"Ah, don't think that was supposed to happen," he said over his shoulder to her.

They were having such a good time skating, that the Doctor knew it couldn't last, it never did, and then he felt it, a disturbance in the time lines. Rose used to tease him that it was his Spidey sense because he was a super hero. What it actually was was his Timey Wimey sense, because he was a Time Lord.

They skated back to the benches, and put their own shoes back on, the Doctor glancing around occasionally to see if anyone was acting suspiciously. They made their way back to the TARDIS by visiting various gift shops on the way, that way he could check if anyone was deliberately following them.

Eventually, they made it to the small alleyway between the shops and ducked inside, when they heard screams from people on the walkway. A blast of green light hit the alley wall as the Doctor put his key in the TARDIS door and hurried inside.

"Get down!" He shouted, and a bolt of green energy passed over their heads and hit the console. He slammed the door shut, and they climbed up off the floor.

"Did they see you?" he asked her urgently, holding her shoulders.

"I don't know!" She replied, almost crying.

"Did they see you?"

"I don't know, I was too busy running!"

"Martha, it's important.., did they see your face?"

She'd had her back to who ever it was who was chasing them. "No, they couldn't have!"

He ran around the console and started up the time rotor. "Off we go!"

Martha came and stood by him as he watched the time rotor pump up and down. A warning beep alerted him to a message on the monitor in Gallifreyan script.

"Arrrghhh!" He grabbed the monitor and read the warning. "They're following us."

"How can they do that?" Martha asked as he went back to the controls. "You've got a time machine."

"Stolen technology, they've got a Time Agent's vortex manipulator. They can follow us wherever we go…, right across the universe." He ran his fingers through his hair, looking into the distance. "They're never going to stop."

He held the back of his neck, deep in thought. "Unless…, I'll have to do it..."

He turned to Martha and gave her an intense look that went right into her soul. "Martha, you trust me don't you?"

"Of course I do," she said without hesitation.

"Because it all depends on you," he said, as he rummaged under the console.

"What does, what am I supposed to do?"

He came from under the console, holding a fob watch. "Take this watch, 'cos my life depends on it. The watch, Martha, this watch is me."

She took the watch and nodded "Right, okay, gotcha." The Doctor ran around the console. "No, hold on, completely lost," she said, running after him.

"Those creatures are hunters. They can sniff out anyone, and me being a Time Lord, well, I'm unique. They can track me down across the whole of time and space."

"Hah! And the good news is?"

"They can smell me, they haven't seen me. And their life span'll be running out, so we hide. Wait for them to die."

"But they can track us down."

He stopped working the console, and looked at her. "That's why I've got to do it. I have to stop being a Time Lord. I'm going to become human." He looked up to the domed ceiling, and watched a headset descend. "Never thought I'd use this. All the times I've wondered."

"What does it do?"

"Chameleon Arch..., rewrites my biology. Literally changes every single cell in my body. I've set it to human."

He put the fob watch into a receptacle on the front of the headset. "Now, the TARDIS will take care of everything. Invent a life story for me, find me a setting, and integrate me." He turned to look at her standing behind him. "Can't do the same for you, you'll just have to improvise. I should have just enough residual awareness to let you in."

"But, hold on. If you're going to rewrite every single cell, isn't it going to hurt?"

"Oh, yeah, it hurts." He went around to the monitor. "Ah, right, the TARDIS is heading for the early twentieth century. Oh, brilliant, I'm going to be a teacher in a boarding school."

"What about me?" Martha asked him.

"Er, we need to think of something that'll keep you close enough to keep an eye on me…. What about my personal housemaid?"

"Gee, thanks," she said sarcastically.

"Sorry, but early twentieth century Britain didn't have many women doctors, and certainly not from your ethnic background."

"I suppose that'll have to do then. You're gonna owe me big time for this one Mister," she said with a smile.

"More than you will ever know," he said seriously. "Why don't you go along to the wardrobe, and find some period clothing. It's through there, first left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left."

She made her way out of the console room, and the Doctor operated the recorder on the monitor. "This working?" he asked himself, tapping the screen. "Martha, before I change, here's a list of instructions for when I'm human. One, don't let me hurt anyone. We can't have that, but you know what humans are like. Two, don't worry about the TARDIS. I'll put it on emergency power so they can't detect it, just let it hide away. Four, no, wait a minute, three, no getting involved in big historical events. Four, you…. Don't let me abandon you. And five…."

Martha followed the Doctor's directions, and like Rose had, all those years before, when she had gone to look for a nineteenth century outfit for Cardiff, she wondered just how big the TARDIS was. There were stairs! That meant that there was more than one floor, how many? When she reached the 'wardrobe', her eyes went wide.

"Blimey, you kept this quiet," she said out loud, as she looked out at the two floors of the clothing emporium. She spent some time orienting herself in time periods and seasons, and found what she was looking for. She chose a simple, long black dress, with a long, charcoal grey coat, and a purple woollen hat. Putting them over her arm, she made her way back to the console room, where she could hear the Doctor talking in the distance.

"And twenty three, if anything goes wrong, if they find us, Martha, then you know what to do. Open the watch, everything I am is kept safe in there. Now, I've put a perception filter on it so the human me won't think anything of it. To him, it's just a watch. But don't open it unless you have to. Because once it's open, then the Family will be able to find me. It's all down to you, Martha. Your choice…. Oh...and thank you."

Martha entered the room, and dropped the clothes on the jump seat.

"Oh, there you are…, you found something to wear then," he said with a forced smile. "I've recorded a help file for you, for when I'm…, well..., not me. These are the controls here."

He proceeded to show her how to access the messages, and then she had a go herself. She saw a file marked 'Emergency Programme One, message for Rose', and couldn't resist activating it. A hologram of a man with short hair, big ears, and a rather nice leather jacket appeared in front of her.

'This is Emergency Programme One. Rose, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape'.

The Doctor quickly switched off the recording. "Not that one," he said, locking and encrypting the file.

"Who was that?" she asked. It was someone who knew Rose, had Rose dumped the Doctor for this other man?

"An old friend..., a very old friend," he replied. "Right then, time to do it," he said reluctantly. He gave Martha a long hug, and then put the headset on, smiling weakly at her before the process started, and he started screaming in agony.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The Doctor walked across the field and up the hill from Joan Redfern's cottage, towards the TARDIS, where he could see Martha standing in front of the doors, waiting for him. This was going to be awkward, because Joan had fallen in love with his human alter ego, John Smith, and John Smith had fallen in love with her (he hadn't seen that one coming).

And then, Martha had declared that he was everything to her and that she loved him, not realising that as John Smith he would remember everything as the Doctor. And as the Doctor, he was already in love with a woman that he would never see again. 'Blimey, talk about a love triangle', he thought to himself.

"All right. Molto bene!" He said as he reached her.

"How was she?" Martha asked.

"Time we moved on," is all he would say, as far as Joan was concerned, he had killed John Smith, the man she had come to love.

"If you want, I could go and…" Martha started to offer.

"Time we moved on," he said more firmly. What Martha didn't know was that Joan had asked him a question that hurt him, and he couldn't answer. 'Answer me this. Just one question, that's all. If the Doctor had never visited us, if he'd never chosen this place on a whim, would anybody here have died?'

**"**Erm, I meant to say back there, last night," Martha started apologetically. "I would have said anything to get you to change." She was referring to her declaration of love for him.

"Oh yeah, of course you would, yeah," he agreed hurriedly.

"I mean, I wasn't really…."

"Oh, no, no…."

"Good…."

"Fine…."

"So here we are then," she said finally, having dug a big enough verbal hole to fall into.

"There we are then, yes," he agreed, putting down the conversational spade.

Martha nodded in agreement, and they stood there for a moment in silence, thinking more about what hadn't been said than what had.

"And I never said…, thanks for lookin' after me." He opened his arms in an invite for a hug, and she readily accepted.

"Doctor..., Martha," a voice called to them, and they released their hug to turn and see who had called them.

"Tim-Timothy-Tim-ah," the Doctor said in a friendly greeting. It was one of the boys from the school, Timothy Latimer. He had a latent telepathic ability, which had helped him to hear the Chameleon Arch Watch, and keep it safe until it needed to be opened. Without him, the Family of Blood may have found the Doctor, and the watch.

Joan had read John Smiths journal, which was really the Doctor's residual awareness leaking through the disguise, and she had seen that if they had the watch, then it would all end in destruction, that the Family would live forever, breeding and conquering for war, across the universe.

"I just wanted to say goodbye, and thank you..., because I've seen the future and I now know what must be done." He'd had a vision from the watch, a vision of him fighting in the trenches, of a falling munitions shell, at one minute past the hour. "it's coming, isn't it...? The biggest war ever."

"You don't have to fight," Martha said.

"I think we do." He may have been just a boy, but his vision had taught him that some things are worth fighting for.

"But you could get hurt," she told him.

"Well, so could you, travelling around with him, but it's not going to stop you," he replied. He'd seen the Doctor in the watch, all fire and ice and rage. Like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun, ancient and forever. Burning at the centre of time, seeing the turn of the universe…. He was magnificent.

Martha smiled at that, what could she say? He was right.

"Tim, I'd be honoured if you'd take this." The Doctor held out the fob watch.

"I can't hear anything," he said, there were no more voices whispering in his head.

"No, it's just a watch now…, but keep it with you, for good luck." The Doctor knew that the watch had an important part to play in Tim's future.

Martha stepped forward and hugged him. "Look after yourself."

Tim was slightly embarrassed when she kissed him on the cheek; after all, he was just a lad. She went back up the hill and stepped into the TARDIS.

"You'll like this bit," the Doctor said with a knowing smile, before following Martha inside and closing the door. He walked up the ramp and started the time rotor.

"Do you think he'll be alright…, Timothy?"

"What, young Latimer? Yeah, he'll be fine." He stopped the time rotor. "Do you want to see," he said, smiling and nodding at the doors.

She looked at the doors, and back at the Doctor. "Really?"

"Eleven o'clock, Sunday November the eleventh, 1990," he said, as he shut down the console. "You might want to put on a smart jacket."

Wearing a suitably smart black jacket, Martha took his arm as they walked through a tranquil village.

"Hold on," she said as they passed a newsagent. She went inside, and came out holding up two red poppies.

"Wouldn't be right without wearing one of these." She started to pin one on her lapel as they walked towards the village green and the war memorial.

"Martha Jones," he said with a smile. "What would I do without you?"

"Die, most likely," she said without thinking.

They stopped at the edge of the green, and he thought about that as he looked over towards the assembled group of people.

"Yeah…, but today's a day for remembering, not for dying," he said with his hands in his pockets. "Those who have died...and those who are no longer with us."

She started to pin the poppy on his lapel, and looked up into his eyes. She knew who he was remembering, a lost love who was no longer with him.

"So where's Tim then?"

"The chap in the wheelchair; ninety four years old, the last of his company."

"Blimey, I don't think I'll ever get used to this. Just five minutes ago, I was kissing his fresh faced cheek…. Oh look, he's still got the watch."

"Of course, saved his life that watch did."

"What, did it stop a bullet or something?"

"Nah that only happens in the movies; this was a bomb." He saw her puzzled expression. "When the watch was the Chameleon Arch, it showed him when to duck…, always useful that..., knowing when to duck."

They turned to listen to the service being read by the local vicar. "They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them."

* * *

"Are you alright?" Martha asked him, as they walked up the ramp to the console. "When you're a time traveller, can't you go back like that and see the people you've known before?"

He leaned on the console and gave her a sad smile. How he'd love to go back, take Rose's hand, and lead her away from Canary Wharf.

"It doesn't work like that unfortunately. Crossing into your own timeline can have dangerous consequences. That stunt I pulled when we first met was fairly safe, because you didn't really know who I was, if I did it again, the whole of our reality could collapse."

She blew out a breath. "And how do you live with that?"

"The same way anyone does, you accept the fact that you will lose people in the course of your life, and live in the moment, trying to make a difference until it's your turn to be lost."

That left her lost for words as she thought about what he said. He was right of course, even with a time machine, you are born, you live, and you die.

"Anywayyyy, enough of this remembering, let's go make some new memories, what'd you say?"

"Sounds good to me, what you got in mind?"

"What about a 'Scooby-Doo' style mystery?" he said, examining the monitor.

"Yeah, go on then; do I get to peel the mask off the bad guy at the end?" she said with a laugh.

"I'd have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for you pesky kids," he replied, laughing with her and lightening his mood. "Well, this has got all the ingredients, a big, old, empty house, and people disappearing."

"Sounds perfect."

"And something Scooby doesn't have; temporal disturbances." He threw the switch, slammed the lever, and the TARDIS wheezed across the Void. "Allonz-y."

"So, where are we then," Martha asked as she felt the TARDIS land with a gentle bump.

"Wester Drumlin," he said in a 'Vincent Price' voice, shutting down the console.

"Ooh, it even sounds like something out of Scooby-Doo," she said, walking down the ramp, opening the door, and stepping outside. "Hah, it's even got the gothic statues to add to the atmosphere," she called to him through the gap in the door.

He smiled and sauntered down the ramp, stepping outside and closing the door. "Where are they then?" he asked her, looking around to see where she had gone. Had he actually been in an episode of Scooby-Doo, he would have heard the audience shout 'it's behind you'.

* * *

Martha felt sick, in fact, she felt very sick…, oh God…. She leant over, and her last cup of tea came up and sprayed over the pavement. She shuddered and leant her head against one of the cool brick columns that were supporting a bridge that spanned the road. She was reminded of the line from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. 'What's wrong with being drunk? Ask a glass of water.'

"You alright Love?" A concerned passer-by asked.

"Hmmm? Oh, yeah, thanks, just a bit of an upset stomach. Sorry, I don't normally throw up in public." She straightened up, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. It felt like the motion sickness that she'd experienced once when she was a child on a rough ferry crossing to the Isle of Wight.

Where was she, where was the TARDIS, and most importantly, where was the Doctor? Moments before, they'd been in an old house, and now she was on a shopping street somewhere. She looked around, trying to get her bearings, but although she felt as though she was still in London, the shops didn't quite look right.

She walked along the street and looked in the window of an electrical retailer, and got her first indication that something was wrong. The prices were in pounds, shillings, and pence, she had only ever known the decimal monetary system that was introduced before she was born, and all the televisions were old fashioned and black and white.

"What the hell?" She looked around as panic started to grip her. "Excuse me," she called to the man who had asked if she was alright. "You didn't see a man in a brown pinstriped suit and unruly hair did you?"

He looked up and down the street. "No, sorry Love, haven't seen anyone like that. Did you lose him?"

"Yeah, it must have been when I stopped to…, never mind, I'll catch up with him," she said with a smile. The stranger nodded and carried on down the street.

"Right, don't panic," she told herself. "Think, what would the Doctor do?" And then she had a random thought, 'I wonder what Rose would have done'. Was she still jealous of the ghost of his previous lover? Ignoring the distracting thoughts, she tried to marshal her thoughts, she needed information.

'Where am I, when am I, and where the hell is Wester Drumlin?' She thought to herself. The first two would be fairly easy to find out; she walked down the street to look for a street name. In London, all the signs had the borough that they were in, but she didn't need it, because she came to an underground station.

"Brixton," she said to herself with relief; that was the 'where' sorted, now for the when. She carried on walking until she came to a newsagent, with the newspapers in clear plastic displays. It was Tuesday, 18th March, 1969.

She started to feel sick again as the realisation set in that she was lost and alone in 1969, with no hope of getting home if she didn't find the Doctor. But wait a minute, she had a super charged phone, she realised. She reached into her pocket, took out the phone, and flipped it open; it said 'no signal'.

"Oh come on," she said in desperation. The Doctor had told her that she could phone anywhere in the universe. What he hadn't told her was that she had to be in range of the exchange, which in this case, was the TARDIS.

"Urrgh." She slapped the phone shut and stuffed it back in her pocket. Right, she was on her own, so she had to try and find the Doctor on her own, and to do that, she would have to think like him. 'Hah! Good luck with that', she thought to herself. The only thing she could think of was to find Wester Drumlin, and hope that he would look for her there, and she knew the exact person to ask for directions.

She looked up and down the street, searching for the distinctive, black, conical helmet of a London beat bobby. If you wanted to know the time, or get directions, you asked a policeman, only there never seemed to be one around when you needed one. There were plenty of people about, and she focussed on a woman who had two small children in tow.

"Excuse me, have you seen a policeman, I think I've had my purse stolen," Martha said, not really having to act distressed, the way she was feeling.

"Oh dear, that's awful," the woman said. "Pickpockets I'll bet, try down the road Luv, the station's down there at the end." The woman was pointing up Brixton Road, in the direction Martha was already heading.

"Thank you." She went the short distance up the road, and saw the station on the corner of Gresham Road. She went through the glass door, and approached the Desk Sergeant. She was close to tears, and started blurting out her words.

"I've lost my purse, it may have been stolen, and it had all my money in it, and I'm new to the area, and I lost my friend, and the address was in my purse, and I'm lost, and I don't know what to do," she wailed.

"Oh dear, there, there," the sergeant said soothingly "Don't get yourself all upset Miss, I'm sure we'll be able to find your friend's address, let's take a few details, and I'll see what we can do."

Martha told him about losing the Doctor on Brixton Road, feeling ill, getting lost, and realising that she didn't have her purse. He was writing it down on a notepad.

"Can you remember anything about the house where your friend lives?" he asked her.

"Only the name, Wester Drumlin."

"That's quite a distinctive name, it's not on my beat, but I'm sure it'll be on someone's beat."

"Oh thank you," she said with relief.

After fifteen minutes of phone calls, and making enquiries, the Desk Sergeant wrote the address on a piece of paper for her.

"There you are Miss, and I've drawn a little map on the back for you," he said helpfully.

"Oh, thank you SO much," she said, taking the piece of paper. She said goodbye, and left the police station, starting the half hour long walk to Wester Drumlin.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The Doctor was leaning over, with his hands on his knees, taking some deep breaths. Travel through the Vortex without a capsule was quite unpleasant, as all your cells were distorted from three dimensions, into four, and then back to three again.

To the side of the TARDIS, he had glimpsed a statue with its face covered, and knew instantly where Martha had gone, and he also knew that even with his superior Gallifreyan reflexes, he didn't stand a chance of avoiding the Silent Assassin that would be behind him.

He took a deep breath and stood up, scanning the terrain, and trying to work out how far he'd been pushed through time and space.

He sniffed the air. "Still in London then," he said to himself. "1969 if I'm not wrong..., which I'm not."

He stepped out of the bushes onto a footpath in a park, looking left and right. There were a few people walking dogs, and a woman feeding bread to the ducks on a boating lake. He reached into his inside jacket pocket, and took out his sonic screwdriver. If Martha had been transported to 1969, then it would be a simple matter of locating her mobile phone signal, because there weren't any other mobile phones around in 1969.

"Ah-ha, direction, north by northeast, range, two point five seven five kilometres." He started walking in as straight a direction as he could towards Martha's phone. At the gates to the park, he looked at the black sign with white writing. 'Welcome to DULWICH PARK, Court Lane Gate'.

He headed north, following the signal from her phone, and stopped briefly at a newsagent on Lordship Lane, to look at the date on the newspapers, it was Wednesday, 19th March 1969. He had no idea how long Martha had been here, he only hoped that the Weeping Angels had similar energy levels, which meant that he and Martha would be transported by a similar amount.

He was concerned about her, because although she was smart, and good in a crisis, she hadn't been brought up on a council estate like Rose, and he didn't know how street smart she was. The good news was that she was within a few kilometres of him, which meant that she should also have been within a few days of him.

The sonic didn't lead him to Wester Drumlin as he expected, but led him to Grove Hill Road. He stopped outside a four storey, utilitarian building built of beige brick. 'Salvation Army. Springfield Lodge' the sign outside read.

"Oh good girl," he said with pride. It appeared Martha was more capable than he thought, she'd found a hostel, a 'soup kitchen' for the homeless and those down on their luck, and at the moment, that described them perfectly.

During his fifth incarnation in 1865, he had met William and Catherine Booth, a couple of devout Methodist ministers, when they were despairing about the plight of the poor and homeless. He had suggested an army of volunteers, doing Gods work and looking after his flock. The Booth's had seen this meeting as a message from God, and the East London Christian Mission was born.

The Doctor walked into the reception hall, and a black uniformed young man approached.

"Hello there," he said pleasantly. "Welcome to Springfield Lodge."

"Er, thank you very much," the Doctor said with a smile. "I'm actually looking for a friend of mine."

The adherent looked him up and down, seeing the old, brown pinstriped suit, brown coat, the white converse on his feet, and came to a conclusion. "Please don't be embarrassed, we do not judge; only the Lord can do that. We offer help to those who need it."

"Glad to hear it," he said with a cheery smile. "Bill and Cath would be very proud of you, now about that friend of mine, a young, dark skinned lady..., would have arrived, ooh, in the last couple of days."

"You're Martha's friend, the Doctor?" The adherent asked in surprise.

"DOCTOR!"

He turned to see Martha running towards him. "Oh thank God," she cried, hugging him around the neck. "You found my message then."

He picked her up and swung her around, before putting her back down. "Er, what message? I just locked onto your phone signal."

"Hah!" She laughed and cried at the same time, wiping tears from her cheek. "The police found Wester Drumlin for me, and I went and waited for you, all day yesterday. When you didn't show up, I scratched my name on the pavement, with an arrow pointing you to this place."

He looked at her with raised eyebrows, and a big smile. "Brilliant!"

"And I've been running a minor injuries clinic for the homeless this morning in payment for a bed for the night and my food."

"Absolutely brilliant!"

"I must apologise for my assumption Doctor," the young adherent said.

"Nah, no apology necessary, I'm just glad I found Martha. A cup of tea would be nice though, after walking all that way, I'm parched."

"Come through to the food hall, I'll pour you one out of the urn," Martha said, hugging his arm and guiding him through the door.

The Doctor sat at a table, and took the purple, plastic folder out of his coat pocket, that was given to him by Sally Sparrow. Martha brought the teas over, and sat beside him.

"What you got there?"

"Well, its 1969, we're stuck, and this is our ticket out of here."

They sat at the table, drinking tea, and reading Sally Sparrow's account of the events that would happen at Wester Drumlin in thirty eight years time. The Doctor would read a page, and then hand it over for Martha to read, her mouth open in disbelief for most of it.

"This is mental…, I mean, we're reading about something that hasn't happened yet, and about things we'll do to influence that thing that hasn't happened yet," she said with a frown.

"Hmm, I know, we'll have to be very careful that we don't cause a paradox," he told her, deep in thought. "We're going to need some money to get the TARDIS back."

While they were finishing their tea, and discussing the transcript, a middle aged man in uniform approached them.

"Hello Martha, thank you for running that little clinic this morning, our guests are very grateful to you, and I see you found your friend."

"Oh, hello Captain, yes, although he found me if truth be known. Doctor, this is Captain Hanson, who took me in last night and gave me shelter," she said as they stood to greet the man.

"Captain," the Doctor said as he shook his hand.

"Doctor, doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor," he said in his usual explanation.

"Really, THE Doctor?" he said with raised eyebrows, as though he had stumbled upon a mystery.

"Yes, is there a problem?" The Doctor asked.

"No, it's just that in the journal of William Booth, our founder, it's mentioned that he met a man called 'the Doctor', a man of such character and compassion, that he was compelled to take action to alleviate the suffering of the poor and the homeless."

The Doctor smiled a contented smile. "Really, fancy that, mentioned in despatches so to speak, good old Bill."

"I was wondering if it was a title bestowed upon a secret order, because from what Martha was telling me, you too are a man of character and compassion."

"Yeahhh…, it's…complicated," he said, smiling at Martha. "A man of character and compassion, really?"

Martha gave him an embarrassed smile. "His words, not mine."

Turning back to the captain, his face went serious. "Captain, I wonder if this man of character could impose on your hospitality. We need a place to stay for a few days, while we sort out a few problems that could cause a global catastrophe."

"Well, I suppose…."

"I mean, we are homeless, and we haven't got a penny to our name, at the moment. However, when Martha gets a job, we'll be able to pay for food and accommodation."

"Job, what job?" Martha asked in surprise.

"Apparently, it's a job in a shop, according to the transcript, and we need to buy some decorating materials, some electronic equipment for later on. Oh, and I have to film my part of the transcript for the DVD."

"Electronics?" Captain Hanson said as a question. "Do you have technical skills Doctor?"

"You could say that, yes," he replied cautiously.

"Then I think I may be able to supply a solution to your dilemma. We have thrift stores, which take donated items and sell them to fund our operation. Would you Martha, consent to work in one of our shops, and Doctor, would you repair some of the donated electrical items so that we could sell them?"

The Doctor looked at Martha and grinned. "Brilliant! Captain, you've got yourself a deal," he said as he shook his hand.

* * *

A week later, the Doctor was in a small photographic studio, where you could record your own video onto 16mm film. He started the camera, smiled at Martha behind the camera, and sat in front of an autocue, with the 16mm movie camera behind it. He put on his glasses and started reading the script in his head, and then speaking his responses.

"Yup. That's me," he said, after reading 'LARRY: Okay. There he is. SALLY: The Doctor. LARRY: Who's the Doctor? SALLY: He's the Doctor'.

"Yes, I do," he said.

"Yup, and this." He nodded his head to the side.

He frowned. "Are you going to read out the whole thing?

"I'm a time traveller. Or I was. I'm stuck in 1969."

'Hang on', Martha thought, this isn't all about him. She moved from behind the camera and in to view of the lens. "We're stuck. All of space and time, he promised me. Now I've got a job in a shop. I've got to support him!"

He tried to keep track of the transcript, and pointed at the camera. "Martha?"

"Sorry," she said sullenly, and moved back behind the camera.

"Quite possibly." He continued his one sided conversation. "Afraid so…. Thirty eight….. Er, ah, yeah, people don't understand time. It's not what you think it is," he said, in response to Sally asking him to explain how he can be speaking to her from thirty eight years in the past. He had to be careful, if she knew too much, it might influence her actions.

"Complicated…. Very complicated."

He paused, as he thought about how best to explain time travel. "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey…, stuff." That didn't go well.

"It got away from me, yeah…. Well, I can hear you…. Well, not hear you, exactly, but I know everything you're going to say…. Look to your left," he said, nodding his head to his right.

He continued reading the transcript, nodding his head in agreement, and then pointed at the autocue. "I've got a copy of the finished transcript. It's on my autocue."

"I told you. I'm a time traveller. I got it in the future," he said in a matter of fact voice.

"Yeahhh. Wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey." He waved his hand back and forth in dismissal.

"What matters is, we can communicate," he said, finger and thumb tip together. "We have got big problems now. They have taken the blue box, haven't they? The angels have the phone box…. Creatures from another world…. Only when you see them…. The lonely assassins, they used to be called. No one quite knows where they came from, but they're as old as the universe, or very nearly, and they have survived this long because they have the most perfect defence system ever evolved. They are quantum-locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice. It's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing, they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. Of course, a stone can't kill you either. But then you turn your head away, then you blink, and oh yes it can." He hoped that explanation was sufficient to make them realise how much danger they were in.

"That's why they cover their eyes. They're not weeping. They can't risk looking at each other. Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen. The loneliest creatures in the universe. And I'm sorry. I am very, very sorry. It's up to you now…. The blue box, it's my time machine. There is a world of time energy in there they could feast on forever, but the damage they could do could switch off the sun. You have got to send it back to me."

He read 'SALLY: How? How?' in his head and paused.

"Aaaand that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking, but I can guess. They're coming. The angels are coming for you. But listen, your life could depend on this. Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink…, good luck."

"And cut," Martha said, stopping the camera. "Was that everything?"

"For now, yes, I'll have to encode some digital information onto the audio track for the TARDIS, so that she'll initiate security protocol seven one two when the recording is taken on board."

"Seven one two?"

"Yeah, single journey that will lock onto my Artron energy signature, like a homing device."

"Clever," she said with a smile. "Come on, dinner's on me."

"Soup and bread, can't wait." They left the studio, and went through to the reception area, where he handed the slip of paper to the receptionist. The film would be processed, and ready for collection in a couple of days.

"So how much longer have I got to work in this shop then?" Martha asked, as they walked to the bus stop.

"Well, we need to buy some wallpaper and paste, and I need to finish the temporal disturbance detector, to locate Billy Shipton when he appears, I don't know, maybe another week."

"Oh great," she said with disappointment.

"It could be worse, there was this one time where we ended up on a prison planet, Justica. Rose had to work in a laundry; she needed some serious moisturiser to get her hands back to normal after that one."

There was that ghost again, haunting them, she thought. Mind you, working in a prison laundry, and still standing by him, she deserved some respect for that. Maybe she'd been a bit harsh in her judgement of his ex, letting her jealousy get in the way. After all, if she'd survived half of what Martha had been through, and still come back for more, she must have been one tough cookie.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Detective Inspector Billy Shipton staggered backwards against the wall of the alley way and slid down to the ground. He was dizzy and nauseous, and he could hear a ringing, beeping, dinging in his ears. No, wait a minute, he could actually hear a beeping and a ding, and it was getting closer.

"Welcome," a 'too cheerful for how he was feeling' voice said.

"Where am I?" he asked the tall, thin man in the brown coat, who was listening to a single earpiece plugged into a retro looking radio.

"Nineteen sixty nine. Not bad, as it goes. You've got the moon landing to look forward to," the spiky haired man said.

"Oh, the moon landing's brilliant. We went four times..., back when we had transport," the dark skinned woman said accusingly.

"Working on it," the man said.

"How did I get here?" Billy asked him.

"The same way we did. The touch of an angel. Same one, probably, since you ended up in the same year."

Billy tried to stand. "No, no. No, no, no, don't get up. Time travel without a capsule. Nasty. Catch your breath. Don't go swimming for half an hour." The tall man climbed through the red guard rails, and sat down beside him.

"I don't. I can't," he mumbled in confusion.

"Fascinating race, the Weeping Angels," the man said, looking up into the night sky. "The only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely. No mess, no fuss, they just zap you into the past and let you live to death. The rest of your life used up and blown away in the blink of an eye. You die in the past, and in the present they consume the energy of all the days you might have had. All your stolen moments. They're creatures of the abstract. They live off potential energy."

Billy screwed his face up. "What in God's name are you talking about?"

The woman looked down at him. "Trust me. Just nod when he stops for breath."

"Tracked you down with this." The man held up a 1960's radio, with a recording reel rotating on it. "This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff. Also, it can boil an egg at thirty paces, whether you want it to or not, actually, so I've learned to stay away from hens. It's not pretty when they blow."

"I don't understand. Where am I?" Billy asked angrily. He was in shock, only moments ago he'd been in basement garage of the station.

"1969, like he says," the woman told him.

"Normally, I'd offer you a lift home, but somebody nicked my motor. So I need you to take a message to Sally Sparrow," the man said.

Sally Sparrow, what had she got to do with all this? He'd only asked her for her phone number. He realised that the man was still talking, his voice now tinged with sadness.

"And I'm sorry, Billy, I am very, very sorry…. It's going to take you a while."

"How long?" Billy asked.

"We'll talk about that later maybe," the man said, starting to stand up.

Billy grabbed his arm firmly. "How long?"

The tall, thin man, with spiky hair, gave him such a sad look, which gave him the answer, even before he spoke. "A life time."

"Who are you people, how do you know all this?"

"I'm Martha," the woman said holding her hand out to be shaken. "And this is the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor," Martha said.

They helped him to his feet, and made sure the dizziness had passed.

"Come on, we've got you a bed for the night, and then in the morning, we can discuss the future."

In the morning, they had breakfast together, where the Doctor and Martha tried to explain what was happening to Billy, and what would happen. With breakfast finished, they sat drinking a cup of tea whilst the Doctor started to brief Billy on what he needed to know.

"I've written the things you need to know in this notebook," the Doctor told him, taking a small, paperback notebook out of a small holdall. "Keep it safe, and try and memorise everything in it."

"What's in it, does it tell my future?"

The Doctor frowned, trying to think of the correct phrase. "More of a guide to your future. There are some definite no-no's, like Sally Sparrow, DO NOT try to contact her before the allotted time."

"Which is?" Billy asked, raising his eyebrows.

The Doctor hesitated, his face sad. "I'm sorry Billy…, but it's the day you die. If you try and contact her before then, you'll create a causal feedback loop paradox, and tear a hole in the fabric of space and time, which will destroy two thirds of the universe."

"Just nod," Martha said helpfully.

"The same goes for historic events from now until 2007, stay out of them, let them happen. I take care of anything that needs to be prevented."

"Really," Billy said sceptically.

"Yeah, really. Remember Ten Downing Street being hit by an Exocet? That was me."

"We were put on terror alert when that happened," Billy told him.

"Sorry about that, had to stop aliens from taking over the Earth. Oh, and the ghosts turning into robots, fighting the flying pepper pots in the skies around Canary Wharf…, hang on, that sounds like a pop group."

"What does?" Martha asked in confusion.

"The Flying Pepper pots, you should write that down Billy…, sorry, where was I? Oh yes, Canary Wharf; that was me sending them to Hell…, me and Rose…."

Martha noticed that look on his face again, the one he always had when he thought about 'her'.

"Is that when she left?" Martha asked quietly, reaching out and holding his hand.

He looked at her hand, holding his, and then at her concerned face. He nodded silently, and then turned to face Billy. "Just let things happen as you remember them."

"Okay," Billy said, thumbing through the notebook. "What about my career, will I be able to pick up where I left off?"

The Doctor shook his head. "People aren't as enlightened as they are in the twenty first century, prejudice is rife I'm afraid."

Martha saw a flash of anger in Billy's eyes. "Hey, you should try being a woman my colour in 1913, it was a nightmare."

"1913?"

"Er, yeah, long story, anyway Billy-Boy, you get into publishing," the Doctor said, reaching into his pocket and taking out a roll of notes. "Take this money, and spend the day looking for a job. We've got some decorating to do, so we'll see you back here this evening for the final briefing."

"Hey, that's my money!" Martha said in protest, she'd worked for days in the charity shop to earn that.

"And after this evening, we won't need it," the Doctor told her.

"What, it's happening tonight?" she asked excitedly.

"Yep, yesterday, the owners of Wester Drumlin went away on a luxury holiday they won in a competition…. Funny that, I don't think they even entered a competition."

"How could you possibly know that?" Martha asked.

"Because I thought of it and it happened, which means that when we get the TARDIS back, I arrange for them to win a holiday competition."

"That's brilliant!" She exclaimed.

"TARDIS?" Billy asked.

They both looked at him. "It's complicated," they said together.

* * *

Whilst Martha had been working in the shop yesterday, the Doctor had staked out the house, and watched as the occupants loaded cases into a taxi, and drove away. He'd casually strolled across the road, walked through the wrought iron gates, and 'sonicked' the kitchen door at the back of the house. In the living room, he'd peeled off some of the blue and gold 'fleur-de-lis' patterned wallpaper, taking it to a decorating store to get a match.

And now, here he was again, with Martha, a holdall full of rolls of wallpaper, a packet of paste, scissors, a scraper, a wooden spoon, some brushes, and a pack of wax crayons. They stood, looking at the regency fireplace, with the candelabra light fittings on the wall, and the ripped corner of paper that the Doctor had taken yesterday.

"Right, I'll start stripping the rest of the paper off, you go and see if you can find a bucket to mix the paste in," he said as he dropped the holdall on the floor, and took out the scraper.

"Okay," she said, and went back to the kitchen, where they had entered the house. She headed for the sink, and checked the cupboard underneath, where she found a bucket full of cleaning materials. She carefully put the items on the kitchen table; half filled the bucket, and went back to the living room.

The Doctor had made really good progress, and standing on a table that he had moved over to the fireplace, he was carefully removing the uppermost parts of the paper. Martha reached into the holdall, and took out the packet of paste, tearing it open and pouring the flakes into the bucket and stirring it around with the wooden spoon.

The Doctor took out the packet of crayons, and selected a black one before approaching the wall.

"Here we go then, time to write Sally the message," he said as he started to write 'BEWARE THE'.

"Hang on, how do you know that they're not going to redecorate?" Martha asked.

He finished 'WEEPING ANGEL', and looked at her as though she had dribbled down her top; Rose would have known the answer to that one.

"Because I know Sally Sparrow saw this message," he said simply.

"Oh yeah…, sorry."

He smiled at her kindly. "Don't be, you're doing great. Thinking in the fourth dimension isn't easy, and you're picking it up really well."

"Really? Thank you," she said. "I've been wondering, how does this work then, y'know, when does the TARDIS come back?"

He wrote 'OH, AND DUCK' as he explained. "When this message is complete, and we've covered it with wallpaper, we go back to Billy and give him the list of seventeen DVD's and the reel of film that he will eventually record onto those DVD's. When we do that, the circle is complete, Sally and Larry do their bit, they put the DVD in the TARDIS console, and it appears in front of us as Billy takes the list and reel off us." He wrote 'NO REALLY, DUCK!'

"Wow! How do you do that?" she asked in admiration.

"Years of practice," he said as he finished 'SALLY SPARROW DUCK, NOW'. "Okay, let's cut the paper to size."

By the end of the afternoon, Wester Drumlins was back to how it had been before the owners had left. No one would be any the wiser that a message had been left on the wall over the fireplace.

Back at Springfield House, the Doctor and Martha sat in the dining hall, drinking tea and waiting for Billy to return. The Doctor spotted Captain Hanson, and called him over.

"Captain Hanson, I just wanted to let you know that we'll be leaving this evening, and we wanted to thank you for generosity and kindness, you're a credit to that uniform."

"We'll be sorry to see you go, you've been a breath of fresh air around here, and an inspiration." He shook the Doctor's hand, and kissed Martha on the cheek.

"And I can say with confidence, that William and Catherine Booth would be proud to see their mission in such good hands," the Doctor said.

"It's strange, but when you speak of our founder, you sound as though you knew him," Hanson said.

The Doctor smiled at him. "Yeah, I suppose it does…, but that would be impossible, wouldn't it?"

Hanson laughed. "In my line of work, the impossible is easy; it's miracles that take a bit of effort."

The Doctor nodded in agreement, Hanson was right, miracles were hard work. At that point, Billy Shipton walked into the dining hall and walked over to them, he had a bemused smile on his face.

"How did it go Billy?" Martha asked.

"Well, that's the weird thing," he said frowning. "I went to the Job Centre to register, except it's called the Employment Exchange in this day and age, and then it hit me, I don't exist here, no birth certificate, no National Insurance number, no NHS number, nothing."

"Oh God, I hadn't thought about that, what happened?"

"I gave them my name, the day, and month of my birth, and then hesitated about the year, I mean, it was…, or will be 1980, but they found me, born on the eighth of October, 1942. I have a National Insurance number, and an NHS number, I mean; tell me, how can that be?"

Martha looked at the Doctor, and he waggled his eyebrows with a smile. "I think you'll find you've got a bank account as well, with some funds in it to get you started."

Billy just looked at them, stunned into silence. Martha hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, before walking over to the Doctor. "Is there no end to your talents?"

"Not found one yet," he said with a cheeky grin. "Right then Billy-Boy, can we have a word outside, it's time for us to be moving on."

They walked out of the front of the building, and around the corner, out of sight of anyone in the hostel. The Doctor took a piece of paper out of his pocket, along with a yellow foil packet.

"This is a list of seventeen films that you will publish on DVD's in the future," he said handing it over.

Billy looked at the list and laughed. "These are mostly 'chick flicks'." And then he had a realisation. "These are Sally Sparrows DVD's, aren't they, how can you possibly know this?"

"Yes they are, I can't tell you how I know, and you can't tell her either Billy. One day she'll work it out for herself," the Doctor told him quietly.

"And now, the final piece of the puzzle." He held out the yellow foil packet. "This is a recording that has to be hidden on those seventeen DVD's, it's imperative that it's reproduced perfectly."

Billy took the offered packet, and they heard the sound of time and space being bent out of shape.

"Ah, that's our ride." He held his hand out, one last time, and Billy shook it. "Thank you Billy Shipton, you've saved the Earth from destruction by a quantum locked life form."

Billy looked, open mouthed at the TARDIS as it appeared. "It was yours all along…, the dummy police box…, it was yours."

The Doctor patted the wooden exterior with affection. "Yep, best set of wheels in the universe."

Martha gave Billy a long, long hug. "I'm sorry you can't come with us, but like he said, we need you to save the universe, and there aren't many who can say they've done that."

"It's certainly something to put on my C.V," he said with a smile.

Martha released him from the hug, and the Doctor opened the TARDIS door. She went inside and the Doctor stood in the doorway, looking at Billy.

"Doctor, your notebook says that I'll meet Sally again…, on the day that I die…."

"Yeah, you have a long and happy life to live before then, so don't be too eager, but when you meet her, you'll have until the rain stops." Billy nodded his understanding, and the Doctor nodded back. Without another word, he stepped inside the TARDIS and closed the door.

He walked up the ramp to the console and started the time rotor; Martha stroked one of the coral struts.

"Oh it's SO good to have her back again," she said.

"Yeah," he said with a smile. "Why don't you go and freshen up, while I'll go and rig a holiday competition and change the date of birth on Mr. Shipton's records."

She smiled at him, and went through to the corridor that led to her room. Twenty minutes, and a change of clothes later, she returned to the console room. The Doctor was just in the process of landing the TARDIS.

"So where are we?" she asked.

"Cardiff," he replied.

"Cardiff?" Not very alien or exotic she thought.

"Ah, but the thing about Cardiff, it's built on a rift in time and space, just like California and the San Andreas Fault, but the rift bleeds energy. Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

"So it's a pit stop?"

"Exactly. Should only take twenty seconds…., the rift's been active," he said, deep in thought.

"Wait a minute. They had an earthquake in Cardiff a couple of years ago, was that you?"

"Bit of trouble with the Slitheen, a long time ago…, lifetimes." He remembered Rose..., and Jack..., and Mickey, all gone now.

"I was a different man back then." He had a different face, a different body, and he was jealous of the relationship that Rose had with Mickey. Martha was quiet, as she saw that look on his face again. Cardiff obviously held some painful memories for him.

"Finito. All powered up," he announced, and moved around the console. As he did, he saw a familiar figure running towards them on the monitor. He could feel the wrongness of Jack Harkness, and so could the TARDIS. He pulled down the materialise/dematerialise lever, and started the time rotor, looking up and smiling as it pumped up and down. Suddenly, there was an explosion on the console, and the TARDIS lurched, throwing them to the floor.

"Whoa! What's that?" Martha asked in a panic.

He climbed to his feet and braced his foot on the console as the TARDIS bucked. "We're accelerating into the future. The year one billion…, five billion…, five trillion…, Fifty trillion...? What...? The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible."

"Why? What happens then?"

"W, w, w, we're going to the end of the universe."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Martha was in the year one hundred trillion, on a planet called Malcassairo, standing in a laboratory constructed by a man called Professor Yana. The Doctor was below a rocket in the silo, with a man she had just met, Jack Harkness; a man it seemed who couldn't die.

After a sabotage attempt, Jack had held two power cables together, to jump start the vent override, killing himself in the process. Whilst trying to resuscitate him, he had suddenly come back to life.

"We lost picture when that thing flared up," she told the Professor and his assistant Chanto. "Doctor, are you there?" She'd managed to get the sound back from the chamber under the rocket, but not the video.

"Receiving, yeah. He's inside," he said, meaning Jack had entered the radiation filled chamber.

"And still alive?"

"Oh, yes," he said with obvious pleasure.

"But he should evaporate. What sort of a man is he?" Professor Yana asked.

"I've only just met him," Martha told him. "The Doctor sort of travels through time and space and picks people up. God, it makes us sound like stray dogs." She thought about that, compared to Rose, his beloved companion, that's exactly what she was. "Maybe we are," she thought out loud.

And then she started eavesdropping on a conversation; she couldn't help it. In the last few hours, she'd learnt more about the Doctor than she had in all the weeks she'd been travelling with him, oh, except for that time on New New Earth, when she'd refused to move until he told her about his home world.

And it was all down to this incredible man who used to travel with him, Jack Harkness. He travelled in the TARDIS at the same time as her absent rival Rose did, but it must have been before they split up. And about that split, something didn't sound right.

'Just got to ask…, the Battle of Canary Wharf, I saw the list of the dead, it said Rose Tyler,' Jack had asked hesitantly.

'Oh, no! Sorry, she's alive,' the Doctor had replied with glee.

It seemed even Jack wasn't immune to the charms of this woman. 'You're kidding?!' he'd exclaimed, as though everything else was insignificant. It was as though the end of the universe and the end of humanity didn't matter, as long as 'good old Rose' was safe and sound.

But then the Doctor had said something that got her thinking. 'Parallel world, safe and sound…, and Mickey, and her mother.'

What did he mean by that? She hadn't run back to her family like she'd thought, it sounded as though her family had been sent away with her to a 'parallel world', what ever that was. Had Rose been taken from him, rather than having left of her own accord? That would certainly explain that look he had on his face every time he thought about her.

Jack had hugged the Doctor at the news 'Oh, yes!' he'd exclaimed in joy. And she couldn't help herself, 'Good old Rose' she'd muttered under her breath, still haunted by the ghost of Rose Tyler. Seeing the two of them standing there hugging, had got Martha thinking.

'But the thing is, how come you left him behind, Doctor?' she'd asked him. He'd seemed a bit evasive; as though he was reluctant to tell her, or was it Jack he didn't want to tell? 'I was busy' is all he would say, but that wasn't good enough for her. 'Is that what happens, though, seriously? Do you just get bored with us one day and disappear?'

'Not if you're blonde' Jack had shot back, and was that a bit of resentment from him as well, was he as jealous of the amazing Rose Tyler as she was? 'Oh, she was blonde? Oh, what a surprise!' she'd thought out loud. That had obviously rattled the Doctor, because he angrily came back with 'You two! We're at the end of the universe, all right? Right at the edge of knowledge itself and you're busy blogging!'

And then, just when she thought she'd seen everything, she found a jar in Jack's rucksack. 'Oh, my God. You've got a hand? A hand in a jar, a hand in a jar in your bag'. But that wasn't the best of it. 'But that..., that..., that's my hand' the Doctor had said in amazement. Apparently, Jack had been using it to detect when the Doctor was in range.

Chanto had said something quite sweet. 'Chan is this a tradition amongst your people tho?' She had this really odd way of speaking, saying 'chan' and 'tho' at the beginning and end of every sentence, but Martha was incredulous. I mean, she knew he was an alien, the two hearts kind of gave it away, but to grow a new hand…, that was just too alien. What was he, an alien salamander, or earthworm or something.

'Not on my street,' she'd told Chanto with disgust. 'What do you mean, that's your hand? You've got both your hands, I can see them' she'd said to the Doctor. The he went all evasive again, typical, getting an answer out of him was like pulling teeth.

'Long story. I lost my hand Christmas Day, in a swordfight' he'd said as by way of explanation, as if that was good enough. 'What? And you grew another hand?' she pressed him. 'Er, yeah, yeah, I did…, yeah' he'd said thoughtfully, and then smiled, trying to get off the subject, he wiggled his fingers and said 'hello'.

Come to think of it though, Jack had hinted that he looked different, when he recovered from his trip through the Vortex, as though he'd got a different face some how. The Doctor had just said 'Oh yes, the face…, regeneration'. But then she remembered, the Doctor had asked him 'how did you know this was me?' He must have grown a new face as well!

And now, here she was, listening to a conversation between Jack and the Doctor, as Jack tried to connect the power couplings so that they could launch the rocket.

"When did you first realise?" she heard the Doctor ask Jack. She presumed he was talking about his immortality.

"Earth, 1892. Got in a fight in Ellis Island, a man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up. Thought it was kind of strange. But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War One, World War Two, poison, starvation, a stray javelin."

"Urgh," She heard the Doctor suck in air in sympathy.

"In the end, I got the message. I'm the man who can never die. And all that time you knew." She heard accusation and recrimination in his voice.

"That's why I left you behind. It's not easy even just looking at you, Jack, because you're wrong."

"Thanks."

"You are! I can't help it, I'm a Time Lord, It's instinct, it's in my guts. You're a fixed point in time and space. You're a fact, that's never meant to happen. Even the TARDIS reacted against you, tried to shake you off..., flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you."

"So what you're saying is that you're, er, prejudiced?"

"I never thought of it like that."

"Shame on you."

"Yeah." She heard regret in that 'yeah', as though he wasn't proud of what he'd done.

"Last thing I remember, back when I was mortal, I was facing three Daleks…, death by extermination…. And then I came back to life," Martha heard Jack tell the Doctor. "What happened?" 'Ooh, good question' Martha thought.

He answered with one word, a name that told them everything. "Rose."

The green eyed demon of jealousy raised its ugly head again and started to gnaw away at Martha as she listened.

"I thought you'd sent her back home." Martha was surprised at that; he'd sent away the woman he loved.

"She came back. Opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex itself."

"What does that mean, exactly?" Jack asked.

"No one's ever mean to have that power, if a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god…, a vengeful god…. But she was human; everything she did was so human." Martha smiled at that statement. Rose sounded like such a caring person, that she had risked everything to save her friends…, her love.

"She brought you back to life but she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever. That's something, I suppose. The final act of the Time War was life."

"Do you think she could change me back?" Jack asked.

"I took the power out of her," the Doctor said, and then paused. "She's gone, Jack, she's not just living on a parallel world, she's trapped there…. The walls have closed."

So that was it, everything was clear now. His love, Rose Tyler was trapped in a parallel world, alive and living with her family.

"I'm sorry," Jack whispered, his voice choked with emotion. Jack and Rose must have been really close she thought.

"Yeah." Oh God, Martha could hear tears in his voice as he spoke. That simple 'yeah', was so full of pain and loss and yearning, that it broke her heart.

"I went back to her estate, in the nineties, just once or twice. Watched her growing up. Never said hello. Timelines and all that."

"Do you want to die?" the Doctor asked casually. There was that change of subject again when things got too painful for him to think about. Martha wondered if he'd considered going back to see her, but she thought the temptation to say hello would be too great.

"Oh, this one's a little stuck," Jack said, he must have been talking about one of the coupling controls.

"Jack?" The Doctor wanted an answer to his question.

"I thought I did…, I don't know….. But this lot..., you see them out here surviving, and that's fantastic," he said with pleasure.

"You might be out there, somewhere."

"I could go meet myself."

"Well, the only man you're ever going to be happy with."

Jack laughed. "This new regeneration, it's kind of cheeky," Jack said in a flirty way.

"Hmm." And then it was over. Jack had closed the final coupling and left the chamber, but Martha was grateful to him, because now she knew the truth, the truth that he was in love, the truth he would never admit to, even to himself.

* * *

"Hold still! Don't move! Hold it still!" The Doctor shouted as they leant against the laboratory door, trying to keep the Futurekind hoard from breaking in, and killing them.

"I'm telling you, it's broken. It hasn't worked for years," Jack said as the Doctor 'sonicked' his Vortex manipulator.

"That's because you didn't have me. Martha, grab hold, now!" The Doctor held everyone's hand on the manipulator and activated it.

WHOP!

Martha experienced the same gut wrenching twisting of her atoms from three to four dimensions and back. "Oh, my head."

"Time travel without a capsule, that's a killer..., argh," the Doctor said as they staggered around in the alleyway. He headed for the street, and his companions set off after him.

"Still, at least we made it. Earth, twenty first century by the looks of it. Hah, talk about lucky," Jack said, looking around at the architecture. Martha was hugging her stomach, struggling to keep up with the seasoned Vortex travellers.

"That wasn't luck, that was me," the Doctor said tersely.

They found a pedestrian area, with stone seats set out for weary shoppers. Okay, they weren't shoppers, but they were weary.

"The moral is, if you're going to get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex-Time Agent and his vortex manipulator," Jack said light heartedly.

"But this Master bloke, he's got the TARDIS. He could be anywhere in time and space," Martha said. She was still convinced that she'd heard his voice somewhere before when he'd said 'Anyway, why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me…, I don't think'.

"No, he's here," the Doctor told them. "Trust me."

"Who is he, anyway? And that voice at the end, that wasn't the Professor," she said.

"If the Master's a Time Lord, then he must have regenerated," Jack told her.

"What does that mean?"

"It means he's changed his face, voice, body, everything…, new man." Jack had just confirmed what she'd suspected when the Doctor had asked Jack how he'd recognised him, and the extra hand that he'd grown.

And then she had another realisation, the hologram message she'd seen in the TARDIS labelled 'Emergency Programme One, message for Rose', that was him before he changed, it had to be. Rose hadn't fallen in love with another man and run off with him, she knew that now, she'd fallen in love with another man and he'd changed into this man in front of her.

A homeless man was tapping a tin mug, begging for money, the four beat rhythm was somehow familiar to the Doctor and Martha, di di di dum, di di di dum. For Martha, it was on a subconscious level, a subliminal beat in every phone conversation she'd had on the Archangel Network. The Doctor instinctively knew the rhythm, and had it been a more organic sound, he would have recognised the lub dub lub dub, lub dub lub dub of his own hearts beats.

"Then how are we going to find him?" she asked.

"I'll know him, the moment I see him. Time Lords always do."

Martha was absently looking at all the posters on the walls and lamp posts that said 'Saxon is your man'. "But hold on, if he could be anyone, we missed the election…, but it can't be."

On a series of public screens in the pedestrian area, a newsreader is reporting on breaking news. 'Mister Saxon has returned from the Palace and is greeting the crowd inside Saxon Headquarters'. They watched the new Prime Minister walk down steps with his wife.

Martha had a sudden feeling of dread. "I said I knew that voice…, when he spoke inside the TARDIS. I've heard that voice hundreds of times, I've seen him, we all have, that was the voice of Harold Saxon."

"That's him…, he's Prime Minister!" the Doctor said, looking at the screen.

"Mister Saxon, this way, sir…, come on, kiss for the lady, sir," a photographer said.

"The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain," the Doctor repeated in disbelief. "The Master and his wife?"

On the screen, the Master made an announcement. "This country has been sick. This country needs healing. This country needs medicine. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that what this country really needs right now…." He looked at the screen, and the Doctor knew he is speaking to him. "...Is a Doctor."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Martha Jones handed over the money and picked up the bouquet of flowers off the counter. She stepped outside, took a deep breath, taking in the fragrance of the blooms, and looked up to the sky as she thought about the previous year.

One year, one whole year, she had walked the Earth, telling people about the Doctor, how he was all fire and ice and rage. Like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun, ancient and forever. Burning at the centre of time, seeing the turn of the universe…. he was wonderful..., and she had loved him.

The number one wasn't enough to express what she'd been through for him, neither was the number twelve, the number of months that she'd travelled over five continents, finding people cowering in the dark and hidden places, hoping against hope for a saviour to rescue them.

Fifty two weeks to visit some of the one hundred and ninety six countries on those continents, bringing hope and the promise of salvation. Three hundred and sixty five days of evading the Master's spies to avoid capture, now that was getting more like it. However, eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours of fear and trepidation, sleeping with one eye open, and never knowing when you would eat or drink again, to find some of the six billion people still alive…. that number started to express what she'd been through.

And it had all been to get every human on the planet to think about the Doctor at one specific time, over six billion of them, because the Doctor needed Artron energy, the psionic-temporal energy that is the energy of thought and perception, the very stuff of History itself. And the atto-Omegas of energy that six billion minds could generate, linked by fifteen satellites, was immense.

The Doctor had glowed with the energy, and reversed the Master's accelerated aging. He had risen into the air, his arms outstretched, looking everything like the Messiah, the saviour of the human race. And then, with some of that Time Lord magic, he changed time, and it had never happened!

Martha thought about that image, the rising into the air, the outstretched arms, and the glowing light; it couldn't be..., could it? Had he done that before, maybe two thousand years ago...? She shook her head, 'nah, couldn't be'.

She found her way to the nearby park where the Doctor said Professor Alison Docherty would be, and found her walking along the path. She ran up to her and presented the flowers for her to take.

"Just to say, I don't blame you," Martha said, not that she could blame her for anything, it had never happened for the Professor, but for Martha, she had betrayed her to the Master because her son had been taken hostage to make her comply.

"But who are you?" The Professor asked in confusion. In the alternate timeline, the resistance knew that her son had been taken, and they'd created a story that Martha had been assembling a weapon that could kill the Master (as if the Doctor would let anything happen to the last of his people).

She left the baffled Professor, and walked back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor and Jack were waiting for her. They were still helping the TARDIS to fix the damage that the paradox machine had caused, and glanced at her as she walked up the ramp.

"And was the Professor completely clueless?" The Doctor asked her with a knowing smile.

"Yeah," she said with a lopsided smile. "But it made me feel better."

The Doctor gave a single laugh. "It reminds me of when we first met and I took my tie off in front of you in the street…, you must have thought I was a nutter."

Martha laughed as well and looked at Jack. "Yeah, and I was right."

She and Jack laughed as the Doctor frowned at them, and then smiled; it was good to see his friends laughing again after the year of hell that they'd been through.

"Right then, a quick stop off at the Rift for a top up, and then we can be on our way. He started the time rotor, and moved around the console adjusting the settings. The paradox machine had been drawing energy from the TARDIS while it allowed the future and the present to coexist, and now she needed to regain that lost energy.

The TARDIS had landed next to the cascading water feature where it normally parked, and they stepped out onto Roald Dahl Plass. The sky was cloudy, but it was warm and bright, they could hear the Herring Gulls in the bay.

"Come on, let's go, and grab some lunch in that restaurant out on the jetty," Jack said. "I'm buying."

Martha linked arms with both of them, and they strolled down the Plass, and right onto Mermaid Quay, following it around to the short jetty, which they walked along and into the restaurant.

"This takes me back a bit," Jack said, seeing the faraway look in the Doctor's eyes.

"Yeah," the Doctor said absently, lost in his memories.

"What do you mean?" Martha asked. "Were you here before?"

Jack knew the Doctor well enough to know he wouldn't open up, so he proceeded to tell her about the time they had refuelled here before, as the waitress brought their food, and they started to eat.

"Rose's boyfriend came down from London to see her while we were here. She told him she needed her passport of all things," Jack said, grinning.

"Her boyfriend, but I thought…."

"So did Mickey…, but everyone knew she was in love with someone else…, everyone except this guy," he said, nodding his head sideways towards the Doctor.

"Jack," the Doctor said in a warning tone.

"What? I'm only telling it like it is. Anyway, we had a run in with a Slitheen called Margaret, who was a sneaky piece of work, and she managed to open the Rift."

"Oh, you mentioned that, the earthquake…, said you were a different man," Martha said to the Doctor.

"Completely different man," Jack said. "All northern, with big ears, daft grin, and a really cool leather jacket."

"The man in the message!" Martha said, everything was falling into place now. She remembered their conversation in the radiation chamber. 'I thought you'd sent her back home' Jack had said, 'She came back' the Doctor had replied. The message must have been for her when he sent her away.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'd left a message telling her to forget me and to get on with her life," he said in a quiet, sad voice.

Martha looked at him in amazement. "You really don't know much about women, do you?" She knew now, from what Jack had said that Rose was deeply and madly in love with the Doctor. That she'd invited Mickey to Cardiff all those years ago to do the decent thing and break up with him face to face. She was never going to forget him, she was never going to get on with her life, not while this incredible, gorgeous man was here, pining for her.

When Martha had first heard about his ex, she thought that she had run off with the man in the message, and that he was heartbroken that she had left him. She had run off with the man in the message, because the man in the message was him. And he was heartbroken that she had left him, because something happened that trapped her, her mother, and her old boyfriend in another universe.

"Anyway, after that, Mickey went back to London, and we went on to the stars," Jack said, finishing the story.

"It was Kyoto actually, 1336," the Doctor reminded him.

Martha shook her head as she finished her meal. "I still can't get over the way you talk about travelling to the stars, or the past, or the future, like you're popping down the shops to pick up a loaf of bread, y'know, like it's the most ordinary thing in the world. To me it's still the most amazing and unbelievable thing that's ever happened to me."

Both the Doctor and Jack were smiling. "People's reactions to that are what keep us going," the Doctor said. "That never gets old."

When they had all finished, Jack paid the bill, and they wandered back towards the Plass, and the waiting TARDIS. They stood by the red brick Pierhead Building, leaning on the railing, and looking at all the people in the Plass, going about their daily business, getting on with their lives.

"Time was, every single one of these people knew your name…, now they've all forgotten you," Martha said sadly, there would be no recognition of what he'd done for them, the risks he'd taken, the sacrifices he'd made.

"Good," the Doctor said simply, sounding relieved. He couldn't travel like he did if everyone knew who he was.

"Back to work," Jack said suddenly, climbing through the railing.

"I really don't mind, though…, come with me," the Doctor said softly to his old friend. He was becoming desensitised to his 'wrongness', and he wouldn't mind travelling with Jack again, they could reminisce about old times…, about Rose.

"I had plenty of time to think that past year..., the year that never was." He looked over to the secret entrance to Torchwood Three, the last remaining outpost of the institute. "And I kept thinking about that team of mine." He looked back at them. "Like you said, Doctor, responsibility."

"Defending the Earth…, can't argue with that," he said. Jack had told him in the warehouse that the old Torchwood had gone, there were only a handful of them now, and he'd rebuilt it in his honour.

The Doctor grabbed Jack's arm and exposed the Vortex manipulator on his wrist. He took out his sonic screwdriver and disabled it.

"Hey, I need that," Jack protested.

"I can't have you walking around with a time travelling teleport. You could go anywhere..., twice," he told him. "The second time to apologise."

"And what about me? Can you fix that? Will I ever be able to die?" Jack asked in desperation.

"Nothing I can do. You're an impossible thing, Jack."

Jack laughed and gave him that perfect smile. "Been called that before." He turned and took a few steps, before turning and saluting them. "Sir." The Doctor touched his forelock. Jack winked at Martha. "Ma'am." She gave him a wave and smiled.

He took another step and turned again. "But I keep wondering…, what about aging? 'Cos I can't die but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know?" he said pointing towards his head. "What happens if I live for a million years?"

"I really don't know," the Doctor drawled with humour.

Jack laughed "Okay, vanity. Sorry…, yeah, can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one EVER to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe, they called me, hah!" He had a melancholy air about him now. "I'll see you."

He finally turned and headed off towards Torchwood's secret entrance. Martha touched the Doctor's arm, a look of amazement on her face.

"No," he said.

"It can't be," she said as they watched the retreating figure of Jack Harkness.

"No. Definitely not. No." Martha started laughing. "No," he said again, and started laughing himself. It all made perfect sense now.

"Come on, the TARDIS should have a full charge now."

"Can you take me to Mum's?" she asked. "I just want to see how they're coping."

"Yeah, of course."

He landed the TARDIS across the street from The Jones's house, and stood, leaning against the door, watching the family through the window. It looked like Clive and Francine were having another go at making their marriage work. At least something good had come out of the year that never was. 'Good title Jack, well done' he thought to himself. Francine came to the window and they exchanged a look that didn't need words, she gave him an attempt at a sad smile, and his face said she was welcome.

He turned and entered the TARDIS, walking up the ramp, and throwing his coat over the coral. He silently looked at the console, the time rotor, and around the domed, vaulted ceiling, before sitting on the jump seat and putting his feet up on the console, waiting for Martha to say goodbye to her folks.

Martha came out the front door, her mobile to her ear. "Yeah. Could you put me through? Hi, I'm looking for a Doctor Thomas Milligan." He had been her underground contact when she came back to Britain after those eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours of travelling. She could hear him saying hello, it was his voice.

She was going to say hello, but he wouldn't know who she was, so she ended the call, smiling to herself; she could make his acquaintance another time, because she'd come to a decision, like many of his companions had in the past. She couldn't do it anymore, it was time she stopped waiting for the Doctor and found a life of her own.

She was no longer jealous of a woman she'd never met, instead she envied her, because Rose Tyler had done something that none of his other companions had been able to do, she had managed to get inside the Doctor's emotional shield, and he'd fallen in love with her, and for that she deserved her respect.

"Right then, off we go. The open road. There is a burst of star fire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio. Oh, the sky is like oil on water, fancy a look? Or back in time, we could, I don't know, Charles the Second? Henry the Eighth? I know, what about Agatha Christie? I'd love to meet Agatha Christie, I bet she's brilliant," he said cheerfully as she walked up the ramp, and then he saw her face, and knew.

"Okay," he said quietly, sadly, resigned to a life alone again. At least he'd had a year to come to terms with his loss.

"I just can't," she said.

"Yeah."

"Spent all these years training to be a doctor. Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them."

"Of course not." He understood that, and they stood there just looking at each other, and then he smiled. "Thank you," he said pulling her into a long hug. "Martha Jones, you saved the world."

"Yes, I did," she said proudly "I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best." She poked him in the chest. "But you know what...? I am good."

"Hmm," he laughed with her.

"You going to be all right?"

"Always…, yeah."

"Right then," she said finally. "Bye." She kissed him quickly on the cheeked and left the TARDIS. So, that was that, he thought as he watched her walk down the ramp and out the door. He turned to the console, contemplating his next destination, when he heard the door open.

"Because the thing is, it's like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Sean," she said as she walked up the ramp.

"And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him."

"Is this going anywhere?" he asked, because he hadn't got a clue what she was going on about.

"Yes!" She'd had a year to think about this, and a few hours in Cardiff to put it all together. "Because he never looked at her twice." The Doctor looked guiltily at the floor.

"I mean, he liked her, but that was it…. And she wasted years pining after him, years of her life, because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else…. And I told her, I always said to her, time and time again, I said, get out." He nodded his understanding of what she was saying, but what could he do? He was in love with someone else.

Martha now knew that she never stood a chance against the ghost of Rose Tyler. "So this is me..., getting out."

She took her phone out of her pocket and threw it to him. "Keep that, because I'm not having you disappear. If that rings, when that rings, you'd better come running. Got it?"

"Got it."

"I'll see you again, mister." They exchanged smiles, before she turned and left the TARDIS.

**The End**


End file.
